Marine and Coastal Access Bill [Lords]

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for giving me the chance to follow the hon. Member for Gower (Mr. Caton), whose speech was steeped in the beauty of his lovely constituency. The Bill carries with it a great deal of hope. It is rare for me to receive as many messages from constituents asking me to support a Bill and press for it to be brought forward as I have on this one, beginning some years ago and continuing to the present day. That is not surprising, because my constituency is closely linked to the sea. Gosport is a peninsula and was originally developed as a support area for the Royal Navy. No part of the constituency is more than about two miles from the sea or the harbour. Boatbuilding and the sea are important to industry in the area, and marine transport is also important in the constituency. Indeed, I am one of the few people I know who went to school by boat. Leisure industries in the marine field—yachting, sailing, swimming, sailboards—are extremely important in the Gosport area, as is access to the coastal area. The priority in the Bill must be to get the whole issue right and hand on the environment to our successor generations. Special interest groups in the coastal area, such as yachting, fishing, dog walkers and equestrian interests, have lobbied on the Bill, and their views must all be taken into account. However, the overriding priority must be conservation. It is disturbing that the wildlife trusts have said that an area of the North sea the size of Cambridgeshire is virtually devoid of life as a result of activity by the oil and gas industry. Whatever the Bill does, there must be no change to the marine environment unless it is consistent with the highest standards of conservation. Of course, the Bill must be consistent with improving standards worldwide, starting with the UK. I am disconcerted to find that the Bill is quite complicated when it comes to responsibility in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. I hope that it will be possible to co-ordinate activities so that it is effective across the whole UK. We must also ensure that it is effective across the whole European Union and entirely consistent with EU efforts. We must go further and ensure that all the international bodies—the United Nations and others—work together in a consistent manner to preserve our environment. My questions to myself are whether the Bill will be effective and whether it will provide the right and necessary powers and duties. Coming fresh to the Bill and reading it through, I must say that I was not fully convinced. This is a once-in-a-generation chance to get things right, as we missed the chance to pass the Randall Bill—I see my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge (Mr. Randall) in his place, and he has made a notable contribution to the dialogue. However, it does not feel to me like a once-in-a-generation Bill. The MMO will be accountable to Parliament through the Secretary of State, but it will be independent. I am not convinced that passing responsibility to an independent body is really the right thing to do. The Secretary of State must be capable of standing at the Dispatch Box and accepting responsibility for all the activities of the MMO. Obtaining independence for an independent body is very difficult. My immediate experience of that comes from a completely different field, which is the Electoral Commission. It was set up as an independent body, but it had to be responsible to somebody. The somebody to whom it was responsible was the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, on which I serve and a number of whose meetings I have chaired. That body, accountable to Parliament, gives the Electoral Commission independence. It is stated that the MMO will be independent, but of course Ministers will appoint the chairman, and they will appoint members after consultation with the chairman. The appointment and, if necessary, dismissal of members is not fully spelled out in the Bill, so I am not sure exactly how that would work. My preference would be to give that body rather less independence and more Government accountability. It must have the powers and capacity to carry through its responsibilities, and we need it to be given wide, sweeping powers with resources to match. Looking through the Bill, we find a great many bodies for which the MMO will not actually have responsibility. It will instead have a duty to liaise with them. The consultative document states that its success""will depend on its effective interaction with many other public bodies, including Defra, the Environment Agency, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Natural England, the Infrastructure Planning Commission, BERR, the Marine Science Coordinating Committee, IFCAs"—" inshore fisheries and conservation authorities—""the Crown Estate, local authorities, harbour authorities and Cefas"," the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science. There are many bodies with which the MMO will have a responsibility to liaise, and one would be happier to see it being given broader powers. I welcome the Bill, but as it passes through its subsequent stages I hope that the approach taken will be to press for all necessary powers, facilities and budgets to be given to the MMO so that it can be fully effective in its role.