DRAFT MARINE BILL

That this House welcomes the inclusion of a draft Marine Bill in the 2005 legislative programme; notes that, in the light of increasing degradation of the marine environment and decline in its wildlife, the United Kingdom urgently needs a strategic and co-ordinated approach for managing and protecting its marine resources; therefore believes that this Marine Bill must be based on a system of spatial planning which allows different activities in the marine environment to be developed in a coherent and rational way and seeks to reduce conflict between the many users of the seas; further believes that the Bill must include reform of inshore fisheries; further believes that, given that more than half of the UK's wildlife is found in the sea, the Bill must put protection of wildlife at the heart of marine policy through measures including the designation of a network of nationally important marine sites; and calls on the Government to introduce a comprehensive Marine Bill at the earliest opportunity.