Marine and Coastal Access Bill [Lords]

In responding to the Secretary of State, I begin by paying tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge (Mr. Randall), whose private Member's Bill in 2001 highlighted the urgent need for a marine Bill. Eight years later, I am sure he will share our pleasure that we are finally speaking in the Third Reading debate of the Marine and Coastal Access Bill. I know from my own conversations with conservation organisations that they are anxious to see the Bill reach the statute book as soon as possible. We can all be pleased today that we have come another step closer to that. The passage of the Bill, both in this House and in the other place, has been a good example of cross-party co-operation. I congratulate the Government on introducing the Bill. It is to the credit of hon. Members and the other place that party politics have largely been left to one side in a bid to create the best possible piece of legislation to protect the marine environment. We can all agree that the various amendments that have been made to the Bill have amounted to significant improvements. We now have an independent appeals process for those with concerns about coastal access, an emphasis on ecological coherence as a part of marine conservation zones, a stronger Marine Management Organisation and a sensible balance between socio-economic and environmental issues in the marine environment. I pay tribute to the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies), for his management of the Bill, especially through Committee, and for the tireless work of his officials. The amount of consultation that he offered was welcome and led to the somewhat unusual case of our arriving at the end of the legislative process with a piece of legislation with which all parts of the House, as well as industry and conservation groups, are broadly happy. I thank our colleagues in the other place, especially Lord Taylor of Holbeach and the late Lord Kingsland, for their excellent handling of the Bill and the steps that they took to ensure that it reached us in the form in which we now have it, much scrutinised. Lord Kingsland provided a remarkable insight during the Bill's time in the other place, as he did with all the legislation on which he worked, and his untimely death this summer was a great loss to the whole of Parliament. We are all fortunate, as the hon. Member for Reading, West (Martin Salter) said, that the Bill received a high standard of pre-legislative scrutiny, and I thank the Joint Committee for their work. I should like to express my thanks to the Members of the Committee in this House for their examination of the Bill and the amendments that they made. I am particularly grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Mr. Benyon) for his work on the Bill. I acknowledge the important role played by the many conservation organisations that took such a keen interest in the Bill, such as WWF, the Marine Conservation Society, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Wildlife Trusts and other members of the Wildlife and Countryside Link, together with the Country Land and Business Association and many others, which have lobbied, given briefings and supplied evidence for the Bill. We have enjoyed an excellent relationship with these groups throughout the process and we look forward to working with them in the future. This long awaited measure is the first step in the right direction towards achieving the goal of healthy, sustainably managed seas. It provides a once in a generation opportunity to protect important areas of the marine environment, and I am pleased that we have risen to the challenge. However, progress will be made only if the conservation measures in the Bill are implemented effectively. Throughout the passage of the Bill we have argued that the management of fisheries and the marine environment should not take a top-down approach. With the creation of inshore fisheries and conservation authorities and their power to delegate functions, we hope to see better representation of the diverse range of marine users, as well as better use of expertise at a local level. With the creation of the MMO, the Opposition pressed the Government to ensure that adequate specialist knowledge and expertise is housed within the organisation as well as being sought from outside, so that it is appropriately equipped to deal with the diverse range of marine issues over which it will preside. We are pleased with the reassurances that we received from the Minister in this regard, and will work to ensure that they are delivered. On marine conservation zones, we were pleased that we were able to achieve a balance between socio-economic and environmental considerations with which all interested parties were broadly happy. I appreciate that there is still some concern about exactly how competing interests will be balanced, but the bottom line should be that implementation of these conservation measures must be led by science. I am disappointed that, as a consequence of lack of time at the end of the debate, there was not more opportunity yesterday to discuss all the concerns about MCZs, particularly the amendment proposed by the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Ms Clark). The Minister advanced technical arguments why a power could not be given to the Secretary of State to designate a marine conservation zone for the protection of a whole ecosystem, but as Friends of the Earth said, that power could have been used to restrain damaging activities where a whole ecosystem could be put under threat. Given that the amendment created only a power, not a duty, I hope the Government noted the force of the argument.