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Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

I hesitate to enter this debate, as I have not taken any part in it up to now. I particularly wanted to hear what the Minister said before I intervened. We have had a lot of talk about consultation, concordats and co-operation. There is one aspect of this that worries me. The bodies responsible are going to deal with stocks of value, such as fish. As the Minister said, in referring to Clause 26, they will also deal with charging. I should tell the Committee of my own bitter experience as chairman of the National Rivers Authority, when we were responsible for looking after the salmon coming into the Solway Firth. Eventually, if they survived, they entered Scottish waters. Most of them did enter Scottish waters and most of them were caught in Scottish rivers. We in the National Rivers Authority, south of the border, incurred very considerable charges and decided that we must seek to recover them from Scotland. There was nearly a war. I cannot describe the anger and the fury that was created. A former colleague in another place, later a Member of this House, now sadly no longer with us, led a violent campaign against the iniquity of the National Rivers Authority in thinking that it could charge the Scots for those services. I mention that experience to indicate that such subjects may be extremely difficult and delicate; not always to be sorted out by consultation. I hope that when the Minister gives further thought to the matter he will give particular thought to the problem of dealing with stocks of fish, for example, that move from one area to the other and are valuable, and the effect of the actions that one body may have on those valuable stocks moving into another responsible authority’s waters, and the question of charging. I have a hunch, having listened to the debate so far, that some elaborate and careful arrangements may have to be made that go beyond consultation, and so on. I make the point at this stage so that it can be adequately considered as the Minister looks at the issue in the future.