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Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

I accept that the revised membership of the committees provides a better balance, but my experience of sea fisheries committees over the years is that attendance at their meetings by local authority members is incredibly sporadic, mostly because they are worried about getting lumbered with the bill for any measures that they take. That is one problem that sea fisheries committees have faced. I do not think that we have seen a clear run through for decision making, because it has been coloured by the fact that sea fisheries committees have been heavily dependent on local authority funding and have for the most part been hampered by local authorities’ lack of willingness to provide adequate resources. I thank the Minister for agreeing to talk turkey on this one; I hope that his turkey comes with a bit of commitment and we look forward to those discussions. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment A232 withdrawn. Amendments A232ZA to A232A not moved.