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Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

First, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, for coming back to Amendment A10, and I thank the House authorities for the renumbering of the amendments. It has made our consideration a lot easier, although I must admit that we became totally confused on the first group. However, it is much appreciated. I was very interested in the comments of the noble Baroness. Obviously, it would be interesting to see the outcome of any discussions in Europe, and I can assure her that I will ask my officials to find out more information. I also take her point about IFCAs and how they should operate in the Bristol Channel, a point that I suspect is also relevant to the current committee relating to north Wales and part of England. She will probably know that the decision of the Welsh Assembly Government clearly indicated that they were going to make different arrangements from those being proposed for England by the UK Government. We are in the process of consulting on a number of options for IFCAs, and I shall certainly make sure that her comments are considered, but of course we do come across the issue of the relationship between the respective responsibilities of the UK Government for England and the Welsh Assembly Government. The noble Baroness knows from our previous debates on the planning system that there are some constraints on what might be called a statutory joint approach, but none the less we obviously want to do all we can to make sure that where the two Governments need to work together, it happens. I am grateful to her for raising the point. On the wider question of local authority involvement, I fully accept that local authorities have a vital role to play in many of the arrangements related to this Bill, and we see them as very important partners. Under the current legislative regime put in place by the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985, the Marine and Fisheries Agency, as a matter of good practice, consults the relevant local authorities on the applications in which they are likely to have an interest. I would point out to noble Lords that Clause 65 places a licensing authority under an obligation to publish a notice of any application in a manner calculated to bring it to the attention of any persons likely to be interested in it and must take regard of the representations it receives. I can confirm that this will naturally include local authorities for development activities that affect their area, while the same reasoning applies to inshore fisheries conservation authorities and many of the other bodies proposed by noble Lords in earlier debates. We stand ready to meet at any time representatives of local authorities through the LGA, particularly to discuss any issues that those local authorities may have because we want to ensure that there is as close co-operation as possible. It is clear that local authorities can have a hugely positive role to play in a lot of the matters we are debating.