Antarctic Bill

I am conscious this morning that families throughout the nation might be tuning into our proceedi...

I do not disagree with my hon. Friend’s analysis that post-legislative scrutiny is a good thing, ...

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that point, because I realise that it might be unclea...

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that helpful clarification. I think that a more wide-ranging ...

I am grateful for that intervention, because it is important not to look at the Bill just in fina...

Further to an earlier intervention, can my hon. Friend explain exactly how we would measure the b...

That is a very good point. It would be up to the Secretary of State at the Foreign Office to cons...

I am very interested in what my hon. Friend is saying, but I am slightly concerned that the cost-...

I am grateful for that intervention. Let me immediately put my hon. Friend’s fears to bed. I do n...

rose—

rose—

I give way to my constituency neighbour from Rossendale and Darwen.

Did my hon. Friend consider specifying a longer period than three years? Being a lawyer, like me,...

Yes, I did. Indeed, I am grateful for that intervention because it gives me a chance to say that ...

My hon. Friend will be aware that I have tabled an amendment seeking to delete clause 5 from the ...

I appreciate that if the House decided to accept my hon. Friend’s amendment, clause 5 would be de...

I doubt it.

The reality is that the duty in clause 5

“to take preventative measures and make contingenc...

My understanding is that as a result of this Bill, which I sincerely hope will become an Act duri...

I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s intervention. I think I made it clear in response to an earlie...

I want to press my hon. Friend. My last intervention encouraged him to say how much he disagreed ...

I think the answer to that question is simply this: clearly, clause 5 would add to the size of th...

Before my hon. Friend moves on to that other matter, I would like to put a point to him. There ha...

My hon. Friend makes a good point. It is not just about whether the Bill is being too effective i...

My hon. Friend has identified a key issue. Fishing for profit does not, of course, cover all fish...

That is a very good point. The House may well need to reconsider. Every visit to Antarctica carri...

My hon. Friend appears, whether deliberately or inadvertently, to be moving on to the issue of wh...

My own view is that the cost-benefit analysis would be relevant only to the UK. I think that it w...

I understand that, but surely my hon. Friend appreciates its relevance to the international treat...

My hon. Friend has made an important point. Given that the Bill’s origins lie in international tr...

Surely the danger of allowing each country to conduct its own cost-benefit analysis is that it wo...

I understand what my hon. Friend means. There is always the risk, with any international agreemen...

My hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Philip Davies) made an interesting point about the wider o...

I believe that if we conducted a cost-benefit analysis in the right spirit, it might serve as a m...

Is my hon. Friend aware that yesterday was the 101st anniversary of Scott’s arrival on the south ...

No, I was not aware of that, and I am grateful to my hon. Friend for bringing it to the attention...

Order. For the avoidance of doubt—we would not want to mislead anyone outside the House—may I say...

It is, indeed, fortuitous.

10.15 am

My hon. Friend talks about the unintended consequences of the 1994 Act. That point highlights why...

My hon. Friend makes a very good point that both supports my new clause 1 in proposing that a cos...

I will be as brief as possible, as there are other Bills that we want to debate today, and this B...

I want to make it clear that I do not envisage, in any way, a cost-benefit analysis leading to th...

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that clarification.

Obviously we have to keep a clo...

First, I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Neil Carmichael) on getting his Bill ...

All those matters to which my hon. Friend has just referred are taken almost word for word from a...

I understand my hon. Friend’s point, but I ask him to allow me to make a little progress. He migh...

Is it not the case that the FCO has included those provisions on its website and ensured that vis...

My hon. Friend might well be right and I look forward with interest to what the Minister has to s...

I am not a lawyer, unlike a good many colleagues in the House today. Are the offences specified i...

To be perfectly honest, my hon. Friend has got to the heart of my amendment. That is not particul...

Mr Speaker will be the judge of that.

Absolutely, and Mr Speaker is very capable of making those decisions without the hon. Gentleman’s...

My reading of annex V is that it refers to the protection of areas, rather than to the planning o...

My hon. Friend is right in that regard, but as I said, the 1994 Act already requires environmenta...

Earlier, my hon. Friend referred to the new clause including places such as the Channel Islands a...

My hon. Friend makes a good point. That may well be an alternative explanation for why we need cl...

My hon. Friend is talking about a cost-benefit analysis. Would it not be better to talk about a b...

That is a fair point. I do not have a strong view. I do not see the harm in doing a cost-benefit ...

Does my hon. Friend think that we could look at introducing sunset clauses into legislation much ...

My hon. Friend makes a good point. There are different ways of doing these things. Perhaps there ...

May I caution my hon. Friend against overuse of the Ronseal test? Of course, Ronseal is based in ...

As a south Yorkshire boy originally, my allegiance is more to Sheffield than it ever would be to ...

First, I should tell the House that I have been to the Antarctic through the British Antarctic Su...

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his opening remarks. With reference to my amendment, it would...

That is something I shall have to consult on. I personally did not have to do an environmental as...

Surely my hon. Friend would accept that if a cost-benefit analysis took place, we could see wheth...

I thank my hon. Friend for that helpful intervention, but the idea is to ensure that people behav...

I listened carefully to what my hon. Friend said. Does he not accept that, as I said in my remark...

The real demonstration of the effectiveness of the Bill when it is enacted will be when other nat...

On that point, is my hon. Friend able to update the House on how many of the other contracting pa...

Indeed. Seven parties have already done so, which is exceptionally good news. They include countr...

Does my hon. Friend accept that under the 1994 Act and the measures already in place, that can al...

That is a good point. However, environmental assessments are one thing, but making preparations t...