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Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

I thought that the amendment was probing in nature, but obviously the noble Lord, Lord Livsey, interprets it as a provocative one. I shall respond to it in slightly more careful terms than I might otherwise have done. The noble Lord is right to say that the amendment would prevent Welsh Ministers exercising any marine licensing functions in Wales for the Welsh inshore region when that is what they want to do. I am sure that with his amendment, the noble Lord, Lord Glentoran, is stimulating the debate for the purposes of clarity and in order to ensure that we have the issues absolutely right between the several authorities involved in the Bill. The licensing arrangements in Part 4 reflect as far as possible the current devolution of responsibilities for protection of the marine environment, and these are reflected in the arrangements set out in Clause 110. In essence, Scottish Ministers are the licensing authority in the Scottish offshore region; Welsh Ministers in Wales and the Welsh inshore region; the Northern Ireland Department of Environment in Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland inshore region; and the Secretary of State everywhere else. There are a number of reserved matters, activities relating to which will remain licensable by the Secretary of State even in areas that would otherwise have a different licensing authority. Let me reiterate a point that I and, I am sure, my noble friend Lord Hunt have made before: it is not the intention of this Bill to renegotiate the devolution settlement. Where devolved Administrations currently have environmental protection functions under Part II of the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985, these have been preserved by the arrangements as laid down in this part. Clause 110 sets out these arrangements by defining the appropriate marine licensing authority accordingly. I shall have some difficulty in convincing the Committee on this point, but the Bill does not make the arrangements more complicated so far as environmental protection is concerned. Scotland and Northern Ireland have legislative competence for marine environmental protection in their territorial waters. Scotland has decided to exercise this legislative competence and is producing its own Scottish marine Bill for the Scottish inshore region. Northern Ireland has decided not to produce its own Bill and is therefore brought within the scope of this Bill. That is why there is a difference between them. Wales does not have legislative competence here and is therefore subject to the provisions of this Bill, which reflects, as far as possible, the existing executive devolution arrangements in the marine area. As I said, the arrangements primarily mean that in the Scottish offshore region, Scottish Ministers are the licensing authority; in the Welsh inshore region, Welsh Ministers are the licensing authority; in the Northern Ireland inshore region, the Northern Ireland Department of Environment is the licensing authority, and everywhere else it is the Secretary of State. But of course the licensing authority is also dependent on the type of activity being undertaken, and as the Committee will readily appreciate, there are reserved matters. Oil and gas are reserved, and the issuing of marine licences is also reserved in all areas except for the Northern Ireland inshore region. The Secretary of State is therefore responsible for issuing all marine licences for activities relating to oil and gas matters, except in the Northern Ireland inshore region where they will be issued by the Department of Environment, Northern Ireland. Defence matters are also reserved—they are "excepted" in Northern Ireland—and therefore the Secretary of State is responsible for issuing marine licences anywhere in UK waters for activities relating to defence. I hope it will be appreciated that the Bill follows clearly the pattern of the agreed settlement on devolved matters. All the devolved Administrations are committed to the licensing reforms in this Bill, and we have worked closely with them in developing this legislation. We have to reflect the nature of the devolution settlement and the respective powers of the Administration, which is what the Bill does and why the provisions are different for Wales and Scotland.