Harbours Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am very grateful to my noble friend for the excellent support for the Bill. I am grateful to all noble Lords who have spoken. The noble Lord, Lord Greenway, has been a long-standing supporter of the Bill, for which I am very grateful. He has enormous experience and knowledge of the UK port industry, which I do not believe anyone will equal for a long time, with the possible exception of Lord Donaldson in a different way, who wished me well with the Bill before he sadly died. Possibly I should not have given the example of the port of Felixstowe. I believe that the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, discussed port expansion. The Minister made it clear that this Bill does not apply to major port development. The example that I gave regarding Felixstowe concerned a very small earlier development. The two applications at Felixstowe have been subject to an inquiry, or, technically, two inquiries. The Secretary of State has not yet made his decision. These will be very small developments. As my noble friend said, anything bigger would probably be subject to a public inquiry anyway. As regards the developments that I am discussing, some people might believe that matters are being frustrated by one person. The process that is being undertaken is quicker and easier than having a public inquiry. My noble friend explained the Government’s approach to these matters. That was helpful. It is easy to say in this place that something should happen but if one is personally affected by a development, one is on the other side of the fence. One needs to have the comfort of knowing that one can object and that one’s representations will be listened to carefully. I believe that that will be achieved in view of the safeguards contained in the Bill and in my noble friend’s speech. The noble Lord, Lord Addington, talked about integrated transport. That is one of the matters on which I am very keen, and have been ever since Mr   Prescott introduced it all those years ago, as it seems now. It is a good idea. As noble Lords know, I am chairman of the Rail Freight Group. A great deal of rail freight travels into and out of ports and there will be more in the future. As the noble Lord will also know, railway developments, or at least the small ones, use the Transport and Works Act procedure which works fairly well. Sometimes there is a public inquiry, sometimes there is not. It would be nice if the ports ended up with the same procedure as regards small developments. As my noble friend said, ports need to have sustainable development, but they are in competition with others. Traffic coming into all our ports is forecast to grow over the next decade—it may almost double. So there will be pressure for development and pressure on the environment. Therefore, there must be proper procedures for seeking permission for big and small developments so that those which should go ahead are not unduly frustrated and those which pose problems can be looked at carefully. The measure that we are discussing will help to create jobs. I hope that it will also help to make not just the port industry but the whole logistics chain from origin to destination a little more competitive. I certainly hope and ask noble Lords in closing that, if they have any influence in the other place, they might like to encourage their colleagues to consider this Bill with favour. This time, we have the benefit of a much longer Session before the next Prorogation, and we might just encourage the other place to look favourably on the Bill, assuming that your Lordships do here. On Question, Bill read a second time.