Clause 197
Marine and Coastal Access Bill [Lords]
12:45 pm
Huw Irranca-Davies (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Marine and Natural Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Ogmore, Labour)
No. I can confirm that, as a result of the debate in the other place and the previous discussions that we in DEFRA have had over quite some period on the impasse, the first occasion that this set of proposals was discussed with the shellfisheries was on 15 June. The shellfisheries were not informed of the amendments, but the principles underpinning our approach were discussed on 15 June.
Again, I pay tribute to the officials who worked very hard to turn those proposals, through discussion with stakeholders, into the reality of an amendment. I suspect that that is probably why the SAGB is saying that it had limited time to look at the detail of the amendments, and I sympathise with it on that. However, the thrust and the fundamentals of what we are discussing here have been on the table for some time. In fact, aspects of this issue were not only debated in the other place but accepted by their lordships as being a good way to move forward.