I am not going to give the right hon. Gentleman a number now as it would not be wise to do so. I know that there has been a campaign regarding the percentages of the seas that should be so designated. The right approach is to look at the evidence, look at the science, find out what is there—we know some things already, but there is a lot, as the right hon. Gentleman will acknowledge, that we do not yet know—and work from the bottom up, rather than artificially sticking into the Bill a percentage at the beginning, which would be the wrong way to go.
The Bill clearly places a duty to designate an ecologically coherent network of marine conservation zones, and gives Ministers the power to protect them in an appropriate way, having regard to what one is seeking to protect.
Marine and Coastal Access Bill [Lords]
Proceeding contribution from
Hilary Benn
(Labour)
in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 23 June 2009.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Marine and Coastal Access Bill [Lords].
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494 c700 Session
2008-09Chamber / Committee
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