Marine and Coastal Access Bill [Lords]

I should like to thank the Secretary of State and my hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert) for their kind words. I should also like to offer my apologies to the House and to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Owing to a long-standing prior engagement at a constituency event, I will not be here for the winding-up speeches. The event is the diamond jubilee anniversary of the Uxbridge History Association and, as I am anxious not to become part of Uxbridge history just yet, it is important that I attend. I echo the Secretary of State's words about the many thousands of ordinary people who are members of conservation organisations throughout the country. Those people have remained keen, from the time when I first introduced my private Member's Bill right up to today, to ensure not only that we get this legislation through but that it is also of the very best. In these days of openness and transparency, I should like to say that I am a member of several wildlife trusts including the Marine Conservation Society, and I estimate that I have been a member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for 45 years. That makes me feel rather old, but I was very young when I joined. As has been mentioned, in 2001 I was lucky enough to be No. 1 in the ballot for private Members' Bills, and I decided that it was time to introduce legislation that would match the legislation protecting the areas of special scientific interest that we have on the land. I soon discovered the complexity of the marine environment. It was not easy just to come along and implement such legislation. We have heard about the legislation that exists in relation to the extent of our territorial responsibilities, for example, and about the amount of interests in the marine environment. I was lucky that the right hon. Member for Oldham, West and Royton (Mr. Meacher) was the Minister responsible for these matters at the time, and he was instrumental in helping me to get through the process. However, there were some vested interests knocking around in Whitehall that were not making things too easy for my Bill, and I realised as I got more and more into the subject that it was far outside the scope of a private Member's Bill. I realised that it would need primary legislation from the Government to produce the kind of Bill that was needed. Back then, the RSPB identified various areas that needed protection, including the Seven Sisters and the Worthing Lumps, which are areas of rare underwater chalk habitats, and the Royal Sovereign Shoals, an extensive offshore sandstone reef. Happily, they are still important areas, but we do not know how long they will last, and we need to get this legislation in place to protect them. We have waited a long time for the Bill. I am greatly encouraged by the number of Members on both sides of the House who are taking part in the debate and suggesting serious improvements to it. It has been through the other place, and good improvements have been made to it there. As my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Sir Peter Viggers) said, we must now seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity to get it absolutely right. We have all been approached by constituents and by the various non-governmental organisations with a serious vested interest in making this a proper Bill. I will not repeat all the arguments, but I would like to make a point about the marine conservation zones, which will be very important for seabirds. They will be important for lots of other things as well, but as the House will know from my long membership of the RSPB, birds are my primary interest in this context, although biodiversity involves many kinds of creatures being dependent on each other and we cannot concentrate on only one. Perhaps we sometimes forget that our seabird colonies are among the great wildlife spectaculars of the world. I am sure that the hon. Member for Carmarthen, West and South Pembrokeshire (Nick Ainger) knows well the areas of Skomer, Skokholm and Ramsey Island, for example, which are wonderful places for birds, as are the many seabird cliffs up and down the coasts of Britain. We can protect those areas, but we must protect the other places that the seabirds go. Only this month, the RSPB published a report entitled "Birds of Conservation Concern 2009", which I am sure the Minister is aware of. It lists three new seabirds that have now joined the roseate tern—a pretty rare bird—on the red list, denoting high conservation concern. Amazingly, the herring gull has appeared on the red list for the first time. Members might find that strange, given that we have only to go out on to the Terrace of this place to see them, but we should all be aware that birds that seem to be common can suddenly become rare. In fact, the population of the herring gull has more than halved in recent times. The arctic skua has also joined the red list, as has the critically endangered Balearic shearwater. We need to be conscious of these developments. In considering the marine conservation zones, we need to think hard about the socio-economics. There will be areas in which that aspect is not so important; it will depend on what is of importance in each one. However, I believe that the reference to socio-economics during the designation process should be removed and that site selection and designation should be based on nature conservation criteria alone. If a site is important for wildlife, it should be recognised as such. It would be more appropriate to take socio-economic considerations into account later in the process, when the site management is being determined.