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Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

In our first day in Committee, I promoted an amendment to Clause 2 that would require the Government to oblige the MMO, as one objective, to base all its decisions on the best available scientific research. However, I recognise that there are other admirable objectives that the MMO ought to pursue. I agree, therefore, with the draftsmen of both Amendments 32 and 33. Now, which parts of those amendments ought to be in the objective category and which ought to be in the ““have regard”” category might be the topic of some inter-party discussion between Committee and Report, so that we can present the Minister on Report with what the House would widely regard as the ideal solution. Whether the Minister will respond in the affirmative remains to be seen. I have a wider concern about Clause 2. It seeks to do too many things in one clause, most obviously, to add guidance to a clause headed ““General objective””. The Secretary of State will, presumably, draft that guidance on the basis of the general objective. However, if the Government are going to insist on that objective being as vague as the Bill has it at present, the Secretary of State will have far too wide a discretion in deciding what should and should not be in the guidance. I believe that the Bill ought to constrain the Secretary of State’s discretion to a much greater degree than it does at the moment. If we glance at Clause 2(1), we see only two general objectives. Indeed, the Bill does not go on to tell us which particular objectives should follow the general ones, so these are the only objectives in the Bill. The first requires the MMO to act, "““in a manner which is consistent and co-ordinated””." One wonders why that expression appears as a general objective at all. Surely, it applies automatically to any organisation that acts with respect to anything. Why should one be concerned about the MMO’s consistency and co-ordination when, as far as I am aware, that expression appears in no other Bill that has passed through your Lordships’ House in recent years? I wholly concur with what the noble Lord, Lord Greenway, said about the second paragraph, Clause 2(1)(b). Why do the Government not agree with the Joint Committee about the reference to ecosystems? They are obliged to adopt that approach anyway, under European legislation to which they have now signed up. They have no room for manoeuvre, for example, on ecosystems. Why are they not prepared to own up to that in the Bill? It would at least have the advantage of compelling the Secretary of State, in his guidance, to unpack in greater detail what obligations the MMO will have on ecosystems. I respectfully suggest to the Minister that two things ought to happen to Clause 2 between now and Report. First, Amendments 32 and 33 ought to inform the Government’s thinking, in particular on what should be added to the objectives clause and what should then be had ““regard to””. Secondly, the guidance parts of Clause 2 ought to be taken out and put in a separate clause.