Malcolm Wicks (Minister of State (Energy), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Croydon North, Labour)

I beg to move amendment No. 1, in clause 34, page 17, line 33, at end insert—

‘( ) An Order in Council under section 126(2) of the Scotland Act 1998 (c. 46) (apportionment of sea areas) has effect for the purposes of this Chapter if, or to the extent that, the Order is expressed to apply—

(a) for the general or residual purposes of that Act, or

(b) by virtue of this subsection, for the purposes of this Chapter.’.

Joan Humble (Blackpool North & Fleetwood, Labour)

With this it will be convenient to take Government amendments Nos. 5 and 6.

Malcolm Wicks (Minister of State (Energy), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Croydon North, Labour)

I think this is the first Government amendment to this Bill, which is testimony to its soundness. The last major Bill that I was responsible for taking through the House was the Pensions Bill, which set up the Pension Protection Fund and which the hon. Member for Northavon remembers with longing. I recall that because of the urgency of the action that we needed to take to establish a Pension Protection Fund and a pensions regulator, we had to amend our own Bill heavily. Indeed, the number of Government amendments approached 1,000, and it is with some relief that I introduce the first Government  amendment in this Committee. I assure the Committee that we shall proceed with few such amendments.

These are technical amendments, but it will help if I explain them, and I hope that this introduction will convince hon. Members that they are important. The Bill contains a number of provisions that refer to certain areas of the sea to which the Bill will apply, or that will fall outside the scope of the Bill. Where we have excluded such waters, we have done so to preserve the position of the devolved Administrations. It is therefore important that the boundaries of the waters referred to in the Bill correspond with the established boundaries set out in statutory instruments. Those instruments have been made, respectively, under the Scotland Act 1998 and the Government of Wales Act 1998. I have therefore proposed the following three technical amendments, which will help to achieve our aim.

Amendment No. 1 amends clause 34, which is the definitions clause for the Bill’s carbon dioxide storage provisions, to ensure that the boundaries of the Scottish territorial waters that fall outside the scope of chapter 3, which covers carbon dioxide storage by virtue of clause 16, are those set out in an Order in Council made under section 126(2) of the Scotland Act 1998. The current order is S.I. 1999/1126.

Amendment No. 5 amends schedule 1 to the Bill, which in paragraphs 1 to 3 provides for the disapplication of the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 in relation to the Bill’s gas and carbon dioxide storage provisions. In this case, the necessary clarification relates to the territorial waters adjacent to Wales. The amendment accordingly specifies the boundaries of the Welsh territorial waters within which the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 will continue to apply. The boundaries are set out in an Order in Council made under or by virtue of section 158(3) or (4) of the Government of Wales Act 2006.

Amendment No. 6 will produce similar consequences in relation to the extension of the power to apply civil law to the offshore area under section 11 of the Petroleum Act 1998, in relation to gas storage, liquefied natural gas unloading and carbon dioxide storage. For the purposes of extending that power to carbon dioxide storage activities, activities within Scottish internal or territorial waters are excluded. That amendment will ensure that the boundaries of such waters are those set out in an Order in Council made under section 126(2) of the Scotland Act 1998.

To reiterate, these technical amendments will help to achieve the dual objective of ensuring consistency with the boundaries defined for the purposes of the Scottish and Welsh devolution settlements, as well as removing any doubt as to the exact boundaries of the internal or territorial waters covered by the relevant provisions of the Bill. I hope that members of the Committee will acknowledge the importance of establishing clear boundaries in regard to such waters and of ensuring that they match those drawn for the purposes of devolution. I duly ask hon. Members to accept these technical amendments.