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Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

First, I apologise to the Committee on behalf of my noble friend Lord Greaves, who is unwell. As other Ministers have discovered, even when he is not present for a stage of a Bill, he does not stop working. My amendments in this group relate to definitions. I will speak to some of my noble friend’s amendments later, which are also on definitions. I have received definitions taken from five different sources of the term that he was unhappy with. The Minister will be pleased to know that my researches have not been nearly so extensive. Ministers are never sure if they are happier when my noble friend and his energy are present or absent. I hesitate to say ““we”” in the absence of the Front Bench, but I am certainly happy with the amendments to which the Minister has spoken. There is an elusive quality to this Bill. One thinks one has understood it and something pops up a bit later, just as one squeezes at the front. My amendments all relate to the wording, "““adjoins or is adjacent to””," which, if the Minister’s amendments are accepted, will become more prevalent in this schedule. I was puzzled as to what the distinction is between the terms ““adjoins”” and ““adjacent to””. I used only one source, my own Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, which, to add to my puzzlement, uses one of these terms to define the other. I would have said that ““adjoins”” means alongside without a gap and that ““adjacent”” means very near, but I am not sure how far away you can be and still be adjacent. I suggest ““contiguous”” as an alternative, but only because I was searching for another word in the same category. I would be grateful if the Minister could explain what is meant by ““adjacent to”” if it means something different from ““adjoins””.