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The amendment builds on the legal advice that I sent noble Lords on 30 March, highlighting how Clauses 119 and 113 work together to create a duty. Let me be very clear on this point. Clause 119 imposes a duty on each appropriate authority to contribute to the achievement of a UK-wide network of conservation sites by exercising its power to designate marine conservation zones in its area. It provides that the authority must exercise the power to designate marine conservation zones in order to contribute to the achievement of the objective of a network. The word “must” clearly imposes a duty on the authority to exercise that power to bring about a particular result. The appropriate authority cannot choose not to exercise the power conferred by Clause 113(1) without automatically being in breach of the duty imposed by Clause 119(1). Failure to exercise the power is a failure to comply with the duty. I hope that that provides the reassurance required on that point.
I turn to my Amendments 113B, 114A and 114B, which I have tabled in response to our debate in Committee and the amendment proposed there by the noble Baroness, Lady Young. The clause as it stands sets out that the network will include marine conservation zones and European marine sites. These amendments would require the network to include Ramsar sites and sites of special scientific interest, as well as marine conservation zones and European marine sites. The net effect is to ensure that the Secretary of State must designate marine conservation zones so that, taken with other marine protected sites, they form a comprehensive network of sites, allowing us to ensure maximum connectivity and linkages between different MPAs. The duty on the Secretary of State to report to Parliament on progress on designating the ecologically coherent network in 2012, and at least every six years thereafter, will also include a report on the number of marine conservation zones, European sites, Ramsar sites and sites of special scientific interest.
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The Secretary of State clearly will take very seriously these duties to designate and to report to Parliament. Taken together, they provide clear accountability to report on delivery. I can confirm that, in the light of our discussions, we will be looking to our statutory adviser, Natural England, to play a leading role in co-ordinating and producing the report which we have to make to Parliament on the way our duties to deliver the network of marine conservation zones have been achieved for the waters that we, the UK Government, are responsible for.
I hope noble Lords will consider that we have listened carefully to the good and interesting debate in Committee on this matter. I beg to move.
Lord Taylor of Holbeach: My Lords, I thank the Minister once more for bringing back amendments that clear up some of the more confusing or ambiguous drafting in this Bill. We welcome his attempts to reassure us and outside stakeholders about the duty to establish a network of marine conservation zones. He will be aware that there is a lot of interest in this subject, and I am grateful for his contributions. I shall leave any further comments on Clause 119 to my next amendment.
Lord Wallace of Tankerness: My Lords, I, too, welcome these amendments. They underline the Government’s commitment, already indicated, to a network of marine conservation zones, rather than a series of stand-alone MCZs. The amendment gives real substance to that commitment, particularly by linking it in with a number of our European obligations, and is very welcome in that regard.
Lord Eden of Winton: My Lords, I add my voice of thanks and appreciation to the Minister for the way in which he has carried this matter forward and for his amendments. Can he say to what extent he is carrying with him any of the other EU countries? It would be interesting to know how far their thinking is travelling along the same road and whether their policy is developing to the same extent.
While I am on my feet, perhaps I may put a very small but illustrative point to the Minister. Other noble Lords may well have seen, as I did, a photograph which appeared some weeks ago in the Daily Telegraph of a rather remarkable golden sea horse. I recollect that the caption referred to a very rare colony of sea horses that are threatened with extinction as a consequence of leisure activity—notably sailing, boating and anchoring of sea craft. At some time, perhaps not at this juncture, will the Minister look into this question and discuss with Natural England the measures that are urgently needed to protect this rare colony?
Lord Bridges: My Lords, I spoke previously on a matter of particular interest to me that seems relevant in this context: the protection of archaeological remains on the seabed. I referred to an article in British Archaeology, a serious academic magazine, which revealed that the Ministry of Defence had sold the contents of a significant wreck recently discovered in the English
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Lord Livsey of Talgarth: My Lords, it is clear that the Minister listened hard to our debates on these issues in Committee. I am heartened by references to SSSIs and Ramsar sites. I hope that the enforcement associated with this will be appropriate when the time comes. I am pleased to see that, in Amendment 114B, “Ramsar site” has the same meaning as in Section 37A of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. My particular interest here is the Severn estuary, where there are a number of SSSIs and a Ramsar site. I hope that this will give sufficient muscle to the MMO when it relates to the Infrastructure Planning Commission set up under the Planning Act, as there are many sensitive areas. These amendments strengthen the Bill considerably, which is to be welcomed.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: My Lords, I am most grateful to noble Lords for their general welcome of the amendments, which, as I said, reflect the fact that the Government have listened to the points of concern raised. We will talk about the definition of ecologically coherent zones when we come to the next group, so I will not comment on that now.
I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Eden, for his remarks. He spoke passionately in Committee about the need for protection and, in bringing forward the example of sea horses, he provides a clear illustration of why this legislation is required. Obviously, we will have to consider all these matters on a case-by-case basis, but he was right to draw our attention to that example, which reinforces the importance of this Bill and the need for us to get it on the statute book to ensure that we have proper protection of the marine environment in the overall context of sustainable development.
I am always cautious about commenting on what other European states think of what we are doing. The Bill is about a national commitment to develop a network, but all member states are bound by the marine strategy framework directive. We played a major part in negotiations on that directive, which provides for the formation of a network of protected areas, so clearly what we are doing is consistent with it. However, I think I can go further by saying that there is a very great deal of interest in many European countries about the proposal and the progress that we are making. I know that my right honourable friends
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I reassure the noble Lord, Lord Bridges, that a draft response is available. Alas, it has not quite reached me but it will very soon. The matter has been discussed with the MoD. The wreck believed to be HMS “Victory” has in fact not been sold to Odyssey Marine Exploration, but I will correspond with the noble Lord in more detail on that. I understand the points that he raised. He knows that we discussed marine archaeology during our previous day on Report, and I thought that we reached a very satisfactory conclusion.
I very much welcome the support of the noble Lord, Lord Livsey, for these amendments. Ramsar sites are very important, being wetlands of international importance. Their protection, which is the point that the noble Lord was really referring to, is secured through underpinning SSSI notifications. A small number of Ramsar sites extend beyond the mean low-water mark. SSSIs receive protection through duties placed on local owners and occupiers, as well as on public authorities and statutory undertakers. These notifications set out specific operations which are considered likely to damage a site, and owners and occupiers are required to notify Natural England before carrying out those operations. Natural England also has the power to serve a management notice on an owner or occupier, requiring them to take reasonable measures to ensure that the land is managed in accordance with a management scheme for the site. I appreciated the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, too, and I think that overall we have reached a very satisfactory outcome on this issue.
113B: Clause 119, page 71, line 39, leave out “European marine sites that have been established” and insert “relevant conservation sites”
Lord Taylor of Holbeach: My Lords, we come finally to an amendment that we consider to be one of the most important for this part of the Bill. I alluded to it briefly when speaking to the amendment of the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, on highly protected sites, and it is why I was unwilling to support her on that point.
We see the overall success of marine conservation zones as depending a great deal on the effective designation of an ecologically coherent network. There will of course be many areas where a stand-alone zone should
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However, I remain concerned for a reason which we often raise in this House: no matter how good the current Minister’s intentions, there is no guarantee as to those of the next. Legislation should not be left full of loopholes for a future Government or Minister to exploit when the going gets tough. I therefore seek to tighten up the definition of what a network relates to. It must be possible for future designations to be justified on the grounds of merely involving more than one site, as is required by Clause 119(3)(c). The appropriate authority must be held to the duty of implementing a genuine scientifically based network and be seen to do so.
My amendment does not seek to do anything that this Government claim they are not already doing. It would also, I hope, address the remaining concerns of conservation bodies that, after the economic interests have received recommendations, the network will be too small and weak to make the necessary impact. Therefore, I hope that the Minister will accept the amendment. I beg to move.
Lord Livsey of Talgarth: My Lords, I certainly support the amendment. I know that my noble friend Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer has spoken about this in a number of our debates. It is most important that these matters are joined up in terms of a network. I agree with the noble Lord about having a sufficient spread so that they can be joined up to an ecological mass that is meaningful in terms of protection. The principles are important to conservation and I hope that the Minister will respond positively to the amendment.
Lord Greenway: My Lords, I, too, support this amendment most warmly, which was one of the recommendations of the Joint Committee.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: My Lords, we have had three short contributions, so one cannot be in any doubt about the importance of this debate. The noble Lord, Lord Taylor, is concerned that the definition is not as tight as he would like and that it might be possible for a future Government to slip out of the kind of commitments that we believe are implicit and explicit in the legislation. The noble Lords, Lord Livsey and Lord Greenway, support the amendment.
I have to say that we have a problem in accepting an amendment, which although extremely well meant, has drafting issues that are genuinely difficult to accept in the Bill. I hope that in saying that, I can convince noble Lords that there is no disagreement between us in principle, and that the Government have some ideas on how to reassure noble Lords on this point. The House has accepted the amendment in the previous group, which I set out and which seeks to ensure absolute clarity in the duty to designate. In having the
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We have included within Clause 119(3) three core principles based on the definition of ecological coherence developed for the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic—OSPAR. The conditions require that the network should contribute to the conservation of the marine environment, protect sites that represent a range of features present in the UK marine area and reflect the fact that conservation of a feature may require more than one site to be designated. We want to ensure that our network is based on the OSPAR principles that are right for the UK network.
OSPAR ultimately provides a number of guiding principles for member state countries to use in determining what is best for their own waters and biodiversity. The problem is that OSPAR does not offer concrete outcomes that we can simply transpose into this Bill without our own research into how the UK ecologically coherent network should look. We must ensure that the network principles are right as they will underpin the entire success of the nature conservation provisions. The Bill must have the flexibility to allow us to provide the necessary levels of protection in the medium and long term. We cannot bind ourselves to terms that will evolve and could become out of date.
Much though the marine environment is beloved of noble Lords who have taken part in our debates, no one could say with confidence that this is an area that we are likely to legislate on frequently. Inevitably, we are legislating for a long time ahead. I realise that there is tension there; in a sense, the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, is saying that because of that, he wants greater certainty now. My problem is that, if we tie this up too far, we will not have the flexibility to deal with evolving situations. That is why the Government think that Clause 119(3) as it now stands is as far as we can go in referencing the term “ecological coherence” in the Bill.
Lord Wallace of Tankerness: My Lords, I can readily understand the point that the Minister is making about a phrase that will no doubt get a technical interpretation and be stuck with it, but, equally, the point made about putting something in the Bill to underpin the commitment beyond what is already there is important. I wonder whether it is still possible for the Government to see whether there is anything more that could be put into the Bill that would meet those concerns without hamstringing future generations.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: My Lords, that is a fair intervention. I hope that I can satisfy the noble Lord on that point, but I must say that we have looked very carefully at whether we can go further in terms of what is in the Bill. The firm advice that I have received as of today is that that presents us with great problems. We think that the provisions already in the Bill, alongside the requirement to satisfy European and international commitments and the redrafted duty to designate marine conservation zones, effectively ensure that the Government will deliver on both defining and designating an ecologically coherent network.
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To come to the point raised by the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, of course I know that noble Lords feel strongly about this matter; I do too. There would be no point in taking the Bill through the House unless we were satisfied that at the end of it we would have the kind of ecologically coherent network that we all want.
In the light of our debate, I can offer to amend the Explanatory Notes to highlight that Clause 119(3) sets out what the network of marine conservation zones should achieve, listing three core principles based on the definition of an ecologically coherent network developed for the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic. It is worth pointing out that the Explanatory Notes issued with an Act of Parliament are used to inform cases of doubt in court, as they give further advice and information on the intent behind the provisions. The amendment to the Explanatory Notes will reference ecological coherence, while allowing flexibility to respect evolving definitions of ecological coherence in years to come.
Although we believe that we are constrained by what we can put in legislation, of course we have much more freedom to set out what we mean in other documents, because they can evolve over time. The draft strategy, Delivering Marine Conservation Zones and European Marine Sites, published on 20 April for consultation, sets out the principles that we believe we should use in creating the UK's ecologically coherent network.
We also intend to issue guidance to the regional projects responsible for recommending potential marine conservation zones to the Secretary of State. We revised the draft guidance, which we originally published this time last year. The guidance gives us the opportunity to provide further detail about what the Government mean and understand by the various principles that underpin ecological coherence, and provides clear advice to the regional projects that will identify the network to use those principles. These include, for example, connectivity, which is an important issue for several noble Lords who have spoken on this matter. Clearly, the network should maximise and enhance the linkages that individual marine protected areas will bring, using the best available science. For certain species, that will mean that sites with suitable habitat will need to be chosen so that they allow the movement of key life stages from one place to another. That can all be made clear.
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I know that I am asking noble Lords to put a lot of trust in guidance on the selection of marine conservation zones. I have already outlined that this is partly to allow such guidance to adapt to circumstances over time. I also accept that the Government need to be clear about setting the framework for the overall guiding principles for the selection of marine conservation zones to ensure that these sites, and other types of marine protected area, deliver an ecologically coherent network, based—as I have said—on our current understanding of that concept.
In addition—and I am finally answering the noble Lord, Lord Wallace—I am considering whether to table an amendment at Third Reading that would
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I said that I am minded to introduce an amendment at Third Reading. I say that because I still need to discuss this with colleagues in the devolved Administrations. I would welcome the opportunity to bring this back at Third Reading, so that we can have another debate about it. I hope then to bring forward an amendment. At heart, I do not disagree with any of the points that noble Lords have raised, but there is a genuine difficulty in having so tight a definition that it may not meet the needs of the marine environment, as our learning, understanding and experience of creating marine conservation zones evolve in the future. I hope that the guidance that will be given to the various bodies that need to take this forward, and my undertaking to do everything that I can to bring back an amendment on the basis that I have already mentioned at Third Reading, will reassure noble Lords that we take this seriously. I am also happy to discuss this further with noble Lords before Third Reading.
Lord Taylor of Holbeach: My Lords, it would be churlish not to acknowledge the Minister’s response to the amendment and the good faith in which he has demonstrated his commitment to an ecologically coherent network. However, I hope he will accept that there is a strong body of opinion in the House that it is very important to make it quite clear that an ecologically coherent network must be part and parcel of the method of marine conservation that the Bill sets up. I hope to avoid coming back to this at Third Reading, but to be able to debate government amendments on this subject would be extremely satisfactory. Should we have the Minister’s proposed solution, I hope he will note that laying a statement before Parliament so that Parliament can distrust its nature is an important part of the process. Given that we have had a very favourable response from the Minister, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
114A: Clause 119, page 72, line 8, at end insert—
“( ) For the purposes of subsection (2), the following are “relevant conservation sites”—
(a) any European marine site;
(b) the whole or part of any SSSI;
(c) the whole or part of any Ramsar site.”
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