---

Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

I think that the noble Lord has got it right, but I will just check that to make sure. I am pretty sure that he is on the right lines, on transmission lines. I come to the question of the Transport and Works Act, which again was raised by my noble friend. In fact, Welsh Ministers used it once, in 2004, to consent to a major offshore generating station on their territorial waters. It has been used by the Secretary of State four times for similarly sized projects, most recently in 2004. I understand that the procedure remains a suitable route for consenting to such developments, because of its ability to declare safety zones and compulsory purchase land for onshore elements of the projects. However, in practice, since modernisation of the Section 36 consenting regime, the TWA route has not been used for major offshore stations. As the consenting function under the TWA has been devolved to Welsh Ministers, any power of veto by the MMO over Welsh ministerial decisions would mean that, contrary to agreed government policy, this provision would not be in accordance with existing devolution settlements. Amendment 71 seeks to place a duty on the MMO to provide advice to the IPC and to amend the Planning Act 2008 to place a reciprocal duty on the IPC to seek and take account of advice from the MMO. I have already mentioned that a co-operative relationship between the two organisations will be key to achieving the Bill’s objectives. Details of how the IPC will receive advice from the MMO are to be covered in guidance to the Planning Act. A memorandum of understanding has also been envisaged to formalise this advice-giving relationship, which could also cover other areas such as data sharing. Clause 56 places a duty on the IPC to have regard to the marine policy statement and relevant marine plans. We have already given clear assurances during the passage of the Planning Act and in the comments I have just made that we intend to prescribe the MMO as a statutory consultee and interested party under the new IPC regime. We believe that those are the guarantees of the MMO’s close involvement when nationally significant infrastructure projects are being developed by promoters and examined by the IPC. I turn to the other amendment of the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, on the question of whether the generating station licensable by the Marine Management Organisation is connected to the hub. If stations generating over 100 megawatts are connected to a hub, under her amendment they would fall to the Marine Management Organisation. It is a probing amendment. Our view is that a group of generating stations linked to a hub would be classified as a single development. There are no hubs currently in existing offshore, although the Department of Energy and Climate Change consented to a wave hub project off the Cornish coast in 2007 which, when built, will enable four or five arrays of wave devices to produce up to 30 megawatts of electricity to be connected to the mainland by way of a single cable. This was treated as a single development, so any generating station subsequently connected to that hub would classify as an extension of that development. Section 15 of the Planning Act is clear on the thresholds that apply in these cases. A development is considered to be subject to development consent if after construction or extension it has a generating capacity in excess of 100 megawatts. A current position with the particular wave hub project off the Cornish coast is that it counts as a single application, but it is below the threshold. Under the new circumstances it would fall to the MMO for consent, but if it were to be extended, and an extension or a series of extensions raised it in excess of 100 megawatts, that would change the position. I apologise for speaking at such length, but it was important to set the Government’s view as to how the two organisations will relate together. I assure Members of the Committee that the last thing we want is a conflict between the two organisations. We wish to have consistency. The references to sustainability is one way in which we will have that, but we are determined to make this provision work. We believe that the IPC should be responsible for projects that are classified as nationally significant, but we want to make the provision work effectively.