Inside Westminster

  Parliamentary activity of shipping interest

Draft Marine and Coastal Access Bill

Synopsis

The Marine and Coastal Access Bill would simplify and improve arrangements for managing marine development and protecting the environment.

A new planning system for the marine area would be created and a long-distance public access route around the coast of England would be secured.

Moreover, a Marine Management Organisation, in charge of the waters around England and the UK offshore area, would be created by the legislation. Powers to designate marine conservation zones and to protect those zones from damaging activities would also be provided

The licensing and management of marine, migratory, freshwater and shellfish fisheries would be strengthened, creating new Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities. Enforcement powers for fisheries and nature conservation would also be streamlined and modernised.

Parliamentary Progress

Included in the Government's draft legislative programme - 14 May 2008

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Draft Marine Navigation Bill

Synopsis

The Bill aims to increase safety standards in British waters and ports.

It would see changes to the rules for marine pilots and an updating of the statutory framework for harbour authorities; provide general lighthouse authorities with new powers; and see the UK ratify the International Wreck Removal Convention.

Parliamentary Progress

This Bill was announced in the Queen's Speech statement on 6 November 2007

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Transport Security Bill

The purpose of the Bill is to: establish new arrangements for airport security and implement the UK’s international obligations to combat terrorist acts at sea.

The main elements of the Bill are:

Implementing the recommendations of the 2006 Independent Review of Airport Policing, including:

• requiring the majority of airports in England, Wales & Scotland to agree a local airport security plan with their key stakeholders, based upon an agreed threat and risk analysis;

• allowing the policing element of this plan to be charged to the airport operator.

Ratifying in UK law the 2005 Protocols to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation, by creating a number of new offences relating to committing acts of terrorism at sea, for example:

• using a ship to transport weapons of mass destruction or in any other manner that causes death or serious injury or damage;

• using a ship or fixed platform to discharge any explosive, radioactive material or Biological, Chemical, or Nuclear weapon or any other hazardous substance to cause death or injury; or using any of those substances against a ship or fixed platform;

• sheltering a person who has committed an offence under the Protocols on board ship.

Permitting enforcement officers (e.g. members of the Royal Navy):

• to board and detain ships where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the ship or a person on board the ship is involved in an offence under the Protocols;

• to search for and seize evidence and arrest persons suspected of relevant offences;
 
• to board ships that are suspected of being involved in acts of piracy.

The main benefits of the airport security provisions are:

• improved inter-agency co-operation in establishing airport security arrangements, with greater clarity of roles and responsibilities;

• a systematic, regular assessment of how threats to an airport are being mitigated;

• local stakeholders, including police, border agencies and other private sector parties, will become partners in the process of agreeing and delivering a security plan for their airport;

• greater confidence for all in airport security, both locally and nationally, as Airport Security Plans should enable more effective deployment of resources to mitigate threats to airports;

• a consistent funding process for dedicated, uniformed police activities at airports that treats all operators equally;

• police authorities will be reimbursed by airport operators for agreed policing costs, in turn benefiting local and national taxpayers.

The main benefits of the maritime security provisions are:

• enabling the UK to fulfil an international counter-terrorism obligations.
 
The public consultation on the draft legislative programme ended on 6 August 2008. Thank you to everyone who responded to the consultation.

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Citizenship, Immigration and Borders Bill

The purpose of the Bill is to: replace all existing immigration legislation with a simplified, clear and coherent legal framework to control our borders, manage migration and reform the path to citizenship.

The main elements of the Bill are:

• support the concept of earned citizenship – setting out the eligibility requirements for UK citizenship;

• support the establishment of the UK Border Agency;

• replace ten separate pieces of immigration law, of which some of the earlier provisions have already been partially superseded by subsequent Acts, with a single Act of Parliament;

• provide for sharper and more consistent immigration rules, which can continue to be quickly adjusted in response to changing circumstances.

The main benefits of the earned citizenship provisions  - a single piece of legislation to underpin the UK Border Agency's operations - will mean more:

• Transparency, clarity and predictability: for agency staff, applicants and sponsors, and the wider public;

• Efficiency and more straightforward decision-making processes: with a system friendly to all its users, and quicker and easier to reach decisions;

• Plain English, avoiding technical jargon wherever possible;

• Public confidence in a comprehensible system.
 

The public consultation on the draft legislative programme ended on 6 August 2008.

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