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Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

I thank both noble Lords for their generous remarks. It has been a very long Committee. This Bill had its Second Reading in December and we are nearly into May. But the thoroughness with which the Bill has been scrutinised in Committee means that we can look forward to a pithy Report, focusing on the key parts that noble Lords have identified that we need to come back to. On the comment made by the noble Lord, Lord Livsey, we have to respect the devolution settlement. He may be weary of this being used as a response to his questions and amendments, but under paragraphs 18 and 28 of Schedule 3 to the Harbours Act 1964, which I am sure he is intimately aware of, Welsh Ministers can cause an inquiry to be held when the Secretary of State is determining a harbour order. These amendments are simply changing Schedule 20 to ensure that we do not remove this ability. They do nothing to undermine Welsh Ministers’ ability to cause an inquiry to be held. The noble Lord, Lord Taylor is right; we must remember to support Amendment A371. I did everything I could to show that it was technically defective because opposition amendments always are, but in this case I commend him on the quality of his drafting. On Amendment A370TA the noble Lord is right to raise the issue that, in paragraph 10 of Schedule 3 to the Harbours Act, providers of an application must publish notice of their application for a harbour revision order. That notice must state that any person who wants to object should do so in writing to the Secretary of State, specifying the grounds of the objection within 42 days. Paragraph 19 of the same Schedule 3 places the Secretary of State under a duty to consider any objections made and not withdrawn before making a determination. I understand that objectors are keen to ensure that they get a chance to put in a supplementary submission if, for example, having discussed their objection with the applicants, their points are not fully met. In practice, once the initial objections and representations have been made, applicants will then either come to an agreement with the objectors or attempt to answer their points in a response to the Secretary of State. If there remains a disagreement, the Secretary of State will invariably seek a further view from the parties before proceeding to a decision. We think adding a requirement to seek the subsequent views of all objectors would add unnecessary complexity and delay to the process. On Amendment A370TB, the wording of Schedule 20 is based on the last wording used in the Harbours Bill, which the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, has introduced into this House on three occasions but which up to now has unfortunately not been enacted. Central to proposals to streamline the inquiry procedures—proposals which received wide support from noble Members during the passage of the Harbours Bill in previous Sessions—is the discretionary power for the relevant authority to hold an inquiry. In order to achieve the long-standing aims of these modifications, the list of bodies that can cause an inquiry needs to be kept to a justified minimum. That is why the conservation bodies which act as the Government’s statutory advisers were added to the list in the Harbours Bill in 2003 to put additional environmental safeguards in place for what can be large complex developments. We would like to keep the list to those bodies at this stage. I hope noble Lords will see these as constructive comments on the noble Lord’s amendments. The government amendments are mainly for clarification and are a sensible tidying up of the Bill. Amendment A369 agreed. Amendment A370 not moved. Clause 304, as amended, agreed. Clause 305 agreed.