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Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

The noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, raises interesting points in these amendments, for which I have much sympathy and cautiously extend my support. As she acknowledged, they come from the Wildlife and Countryside Link, a consortium of nature conservation groups. As it stands, the Bill requires only that a marine planning authority, "““must consider appointing an independent person to investigate proposals contained in””," a consultation draft. Can the Minister expand on when he thinks it might be necessary to have an independent body carry out an investigation? If the clause is flexible enough to allow the marine plan authority only to ““consider”” appointing, there must be a line between the times when this would be advisable and those when it would not. Who will be the adjudicator of that arbitrary line? Will it be crossed if the proposals in the draft are more controversial, politically sensitive or hard-hitting than usual, or if they cost more money? I would appreciate some clarification. We are also nervous of clogging up marine planning with yet more bureaucracy and paper. Perhaps the Minister can also expand on how he sees the process working. Will there be any guidelines on how an investigation should be structured, and how often will this process be necessary?