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Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

I am following the Minister’s argument as carefully as I can, but I do not think that he is responding to the point made by my noble friend. All his emphasis on the different circumstances of SSSIs and MCZs is a bit of a red herring, frankly. The suggestion that there might be different authorities involved in SSSIs is not really the key issue. What will be the remedy if a public authority does not do its duty? The noble Lord’s reliance on judicial review is a bit worrying. So often in this House—in this building—Ministers spend their time trying to avoid circumstances where the only remedy is judicial review, which is tortuous and expensive. Now that he has had a chance to look at the missives that he has received from the Box, the Minister may be able to tell us how often a solution has been found through judicial review where SSSIs have been involved. Not very often, I suspect. As we all know, it is a tortuous and expensive process, and many people feel that it is the wrong process to undergo when an official body has not performed its duty. Here we have a very good system, suggested by my noble friend on the basis of practical experience. If the Minister cannot accept this solution, I hope that he and his colleagues will come up with something before Report that does not simply take us back to judicial review.