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Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

I do not intend to speak for long, but I have some amendments in this group. Indeed, the Minister mentioned that he has added his name to Amendment A371, which we must not forget to move. We will come to it later, but so rare is this occurrence that the procedure is not one that I am particularly familiar with. I should like to thank the noble Lord for accepting the rare recommendations of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee and for moving amendments to make several of mine unnecessary. There are two other amendments in my name, Amendments A370TA and A370TB, which relate to changes to the harbour order that the Government are implementing through this legislation. As we have heard, the Government are attempting to make sure that an objection to a change does not automatically lead to a public inquiry. This seems sensible, given that not every objection needs to result in one, but the changes must not be of such an extent as to allow legitimate and substantive objections to be fobbed off. Amendment A370TA seeks to give the objector the opportunity to confirm that he does in fact want a public inquiry and for that request to be given due consideration. Amendment A370TB considers whether it might not be useful for national representative organisations also to be able to make an objection in addition to the bodies already set out. That is all I have to say on these amendments. I know that it is not customary to make long speeches of thanks at this stage of a Bill, but I would like to thank the Minister and the team supporting him for the help we have been given in trying to achieve consensus on the Bill, a point also referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Greaves. There has been strong agreement within the Committee to make this a better Bill, and indeed its Committee stage may well be one of the longest that we have ever had during the course of our parliamentary activities. However, it has certainly been productive. With that, I shall sit down.