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Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

It is a good question. Essentially, the marine policy statement will always apply to the whole UK marine area and can have regional content within it. If the devolved Administrations are not signed up, it will be limited in its scope and impact. I suppose that in theory a UK Government-only marine policy statement could cover devolved matters, but I am not sure that that would be wise. In any case, the devolved Administrations would not have to follow it. A UK Government-only marine policy statement would cover reserve matters, and for England it would cover the whole area of marine licensing and consents. It would be a huge disappointment to get to that position. We hope—the incentives to do so are in the Bill—for agreement to be reached. Again, I go back to the statement of intent by the four Administrations following the meeting last autumn setting out their determination to make this work. The Bill is constructed to make it possible, with incentives moving in the direction towards an agreed marine policy statement for the United Kingdom to which all the devolved Administrations are signed up, but in a sense there is a reserve position in order to deal with the matter if it is not possible.