Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am introducing government Amendments 121A, 122A, 122B, 122C, 122D, 122E, 122F, 126C and 130 to correct drafting errors. These are all minor and technical amendments. Amendments 121A, 122A, 122C, 122D and 122F ensure that references to smelt are restricted to the migratory species of smelt—in other words, European smelt—and not the marine species, or sand smelt. Amendment 122B ensures that the terminology in Schedule 27 to the Water Resources Act 1991 mirrors that used in Schedule 25. Schedule 27 gives the Environment Agency the power to introduce by-laws quickly in response to emergency situations. Schedule 25 sets out how the agency may use its ordinary by-law-making powers. I am enormously grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, who queried in Committee the use of the terms "physiographical" and "geomorphological". I have written to him setting out the reasons why the terminology is necessarily different in the various parts of the Bill. Amendment 122E ensures that "conservation", which is defined in Section 111(4) of the Scotland Act 1998, includes the protection of the environment not only of salmon, trout, eels and freshwater fish but also of lampreys, smelt and shad. Amendments 126C and 130 amend Clause 313 to clarify that amendments to the British Fishery Limits Act 1976 arising from the creation of the exclusive economic zone do not extend to the Crown dependencies and that changes to that Act arising from the creation of the Welsh zone apply to the same extent as the Act. I beg to move.