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Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

I am most grateful to the noble Lord for giving way. If I might seek to summarise the point that the noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, was making today, it is that without science there would not be any point in the MMO. Without the science in relation to biodiversity, there would be no MMO. That is why science, in the respectful submission of the noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, and in mine, has a position in the hierarchy of objectives right at the top. Everything else, whatever its degree of importance, is an also-ran. Accurate science, which measures biodiversity and therefore limits everything else that can be done or proved by the MMO, is the key to understanding the mechanism that ought to drive this new and very welcome institution.