Clause 117
Marine and Coastal Access Bill [Lords]
5:00 pm
Richard Benyon (Shadow Minister, Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Newbury, Conservative)
We have had a very useful debate, which has, if nothing else, clarified the Government’s intentions and how they see the system working. The Minister has proved himself to be an optimist, this afternoon, in believing that each tier of difficulty is achievable, and so we must wish him well. He is also optimistic in that he hopes to be the Minister who enacts the designations. I have news for him—so do I—but that is a discussion for another occasion.
The hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton rightly teased a very important point out of the Minister about the level of ambition regarding marine conservation zones. On Second Reading, I deliberately made the point that we should not go down the path that some have tried to persuade us to go down of saying that our ambition relates to a certain percentage of the seas, because that would allow a path of least resistance that might result in the designation of relatively benign and uncontroversial areas of the sea in order to achieve a headline figure. Let us face it, many controversial decisions will have to be taken, although much of that controversy will be based on perception rather than reality. Local communities will say, “We are being impoverished; our fishing and tourism industries are being affected by the designation,” but in most cases those perceptions will be groundless.
It is important to stick hard and fast to the principle that designation will be based on science. What I have sought to do in these amendments is to tease out from the Government a process by which we will get to that point. We have established that that process will be conducted, first, on the basis of sound science, and then socio-economic factors can be considered. As the hon. Member for Reading, West has pointed out, very often those two factors will be entirely compatible; in fact, they will mutually enhance each other.
I take the point raised by the hon. Member for Reading, West about sea anglers being an asset by reporting what is going on. There will not be a line on the map or any buoys or markers to show where these zones start and finish. The only people who will know them are those people who know those waters and that locality. We will be relying, to large measure, on such people.
Where we are yet to make progress is on the point that I raised with amendment 15 regarding the lack of compatibility with other regions going through the same process. I have yet to hear from the Minister why there is a difference in wording and in approach between what we are trying to achieve and what the Scottish Parliament is trying to achieve in the Scottish Marine Bill.