Current legislation and policy issues
The Planning Bill, the Draft Marine Bill and the Draft Marine Navigation Bill
The next year promises to be a busy one for the ports industry. In Westminster there are three large pieces of legislation at various stages of transition through Parliament which all have important implications for our sector.
The Planning Bill, which was introduced during the 2007/08 Parliamentary session, proposes to introduce a new system streamline decisions on major infrastructure developments such as harbours. The Bill is nearing the completion of its passage through both Houses and should be enacted before Prorogation in the autumn of 2008. Importantly for our industry the Bill will pave the way for a National Ports Policy Statement and require the DfT to develop market forecasts for the sector.
The recently published Draft Marine Bill, which we expect to be introduced as a Bill proper midway through the 2008/09 Parliamentary session, promises to be a substantial piece of legislation which will have a large impact across the whole ports sector. The Draft Bill includes provisions to create a new Marine Management Organisation to administer planning, licensing activities, marine nature conservation and the management of fisheries in the marine area. It also includes proposals to give the public greater access to coastal areas. In July 2008 the Scottish Government published a draft Marine Bill for Scotland which will set up a similar marine management body north of the border.
Also recently published is the Draft Marine Navigation Bill. It includes proposals to reinforce the industry’s ‘Port Marine Safety Code’, reform certain aspects of the pilotage certification system and improve the management powers of General Lighthouse Authorities. We expect that this Bill will also be introduced in the 2008/09 Parliamentary session.
The BPA gave oral evidence before Parliamentary Committees on both the Draft Marine Bill and the Draft Marine Navigation Bill whilst they were receiving pre-legislative scrutiny. We will obviously follow the development of these pieces of legislation closely.
Aside from these Bills we are in the latter stages of a ports policy review, which forms part of the government’s wider ‘Towards a Sustainable Transport System’ strategy. There are still some outstanding aspects of this review that are yet to be resolved which we are continuing to follow with interest, notably the guidance for Trust ports and the issue of who pays for transport infrastructure improvements around ports.
On other issues, the ports sector is also being asked to comply with a new system of security regulations, participate in the discussions about the restructuring of the management of the UK’s border controls and develop the UK’s implementation strategy for the Water Framework Directive.