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Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

That is a fair question. It is true that later amendments will come back to this point. In this first amendment, I seek to reassure the Committee that the role of the Marine Management Organisation is not simply to be a referee in the terms that the noble Baroness, Lady Young, suggested that I had said. It will have to deal with critical issues and pressures from many sources. We should not be under any misapprehension that it will have an extremely challenging job, but it will act within the strategic direction given by Ministers, in particular through the marine policy statement. That is how accountability will be discharged to Ministers and thence to Parliament. In so doing, it will become an authoritative body that will be listened to carefully and, I strongly suspect, play an influential role in the development of future policy. While I understand what noble Lords are saying, my problem with the concept of a champion is that it has the suggestion of a pressure group about it. This has to be an authoritative body acting within the statute and on the directions given to it.