Draft United Kingdom Marine Policy Statement

Earl of Selborne Excerpts

Wednesday 15th December 2010 Grand Committee

[The Earl of Selborne]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for introducing this debate on the draft marine policy statement. I declare an interest as chair of the Living with Environmental Change partnership, which comprises a research programme of 22 funders, of which Defra is one. I am also a past chair of the advisory committee of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. The way in which this agenda has been pushed forward since the passing of the Marine and Coastal Access Act is commendable. From March to May we had the pre-consultative exercise and we have now had the consultation itself. I understand that workshops on it have been held and I fully subscribe to that process. It is a good opportunity for the community to become well informed about the issue and contribute to the consultation exercise. The initial summary of responses was received in November.

The Minister asked whether the draft document was fit for purpose. My noble friend Lady Miller has explained her concern that it does not do enough to determine issues of conflict and to point out where the rub should lie. She is right to say that the document is strong on platitudes—for example, the phrase in Chapter 2, which is very commendable as far as it goes, but states:

“Marine plans will be based on a sound evidence base”.

Thank goodness for that, because if they were not we would be in trouble. The evidence base comprises not just scientific advice—this is spelt out in the report—but comes from a range of sources, including existing plans, the people who live or work in the plan area, scientists, statutory and other advisers, industry and marine users. This is all part of the evidence base. That is why I caution my noble friend Lady Miller to make sure that we do not just assume that environmental interests, which were the driver for the original Bill, are setting the agenda. However, it is perfectly accurate to say that report after report has pointed out the parlous state of our marine environment. That is why we needed legislation, and why Defra is progressing with it. The latest state of the seas report, Charting Progress 2: An assessment of the state of UK seas, reminds us, if we needed reminding, the extent to which man’s activities are impacting on the marine environment, marine species and habitats, which are under pressure, declining or damaged. That can be taken as a given; it would not be unduly contentious to say that the evidence base has already established this. My noble friend Lady Miller is right to say that we should stick that into the draft MPS and move on, while recognising that socioeconomic and other issues will be part of the evidence base.

I will refer to the evidence base that we expect will be generated by science and scientific advisers. Here, we cannot overstress the importance of long-term monitoring. It is a very unfashionable area of science. Whenever a new, attractive idea comes up that is likely to win a prize, there is never any new funding, so money is taken from an area of science that is less attractive and recycled into the new project. However, long-term data collection is the key to determining how one manages the marine environment. That is true of the terrestrial environment, too, but it is particularly true of the marine environment because there are so many variables and because we do not know a lot about large areas of it. Some surveys date back to the early 20th century. That is something that we need to redress, and it can be redressed only by expensive infrastructure and the use of remote satellites, buoys and the like. It is very important not just to maintain the data collection, but to compare it with the trajectories of previous reports.

The UK Marine Monitoring and Assessment Strategy community reports to the Marine Science Co-ordination Committee and provides a platform for addressing the research that is necessary to fill the gaps in our knowledge about how natural and anthropogenic pressures impact on marine ecosystems. If marine planning is to be successful—and we earnestly hope that it will be—it must be informed by up-to-date, nationally consistent data on a much wider variety of variables than is required for its terrestrial equivalent.

The draft MPS refers appropriately to the requirement to ensure that the process of developing marine plans must be based on an ecosystem approach—that is, an approach that ensures that the collective pressures of human activities are kept to levels that are compatible with the achievement of a good environmental status that does not compromise the capacity of marine ecosystems to respond to human-induced changes. We do, whether on land or sea, alter the environment. An ecosystem is no longer sustainable, and we get into trouble, when its natural resilience is compromised. It is critical to be able to anticipate that tipping point. Again, it comes back to a good understanding of science and, above all, to data collection.

We need to put in place a network of ecologically coherent MPAs, including marine conservation zones, to address the threats to marine biodiversity and to deliver effective nature conservation. In order to achieve this, marine conservation zones must be identified using scientific advice of the highest quality. A marine science base and a comprehensive marine programme will be critical. I am concerned that this is going to be difficult because of the cost of maintaining marine science, and I hope the Minister can assure me that that is a threat I need not worry about.

Lastly, I would make the observation that with marine planning comes a whole new discipline for planners. It is a young discipline and it needs recruits of an appropriate technical and professional capacity. We will need more university courses to produce marine planners who understand the sort of conflicts referred to by my noble friend Lady Miller, and on a different technical level we will need national vocational qualifications for marine survey that build on the existing qualifications.

In summary, I congratulate the Government on their progress to date and on producing a marine policy statement in draft, but I hope that we do not forget the need to foster the underpinning disciplines for marine planning.