The purpose of the Bill is to: improve and simplify arrangements for managing marine development and protecting the marine environment and biodiversity, including a new planning system for the marine area, and provide greater recreational access to the English coast.

The main elements of the Bill are:

• Secure a long-distance route around the coast of England including beaches, cliffs, rocks and dunes, with public access for coastal walking and other recreational activities.

• Establish a Marine Management Organisation for the waters around England and the UK offshore area;

• Introduce a new marine planning system, with long-term objectives for the marine area around the UK, and subsequently the creation of more detailed local marine plans;

• Streamline the law on licensing marine development so that, as far as possible, only one licence is needed for each development;

• Provide powers to designate marine conservation zones and to protect those zones from damaging activities;

• Strengthen and modernise the licensing and management of marine, migratory, freshwater and shellfish fisheries, including creating new Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities and introducing a scheme to manage live fish movement;

• Streamline and modernise enforcement powers for fisheries and nature conservation, providing a civil sanctions scheme for licensing and nature conservation offences and an administrative penalty scheme for domestic fisheries offences.

The main benefits of the Bill are:

• Greater recreational opportunities from increased public access to the English coast, with the economic benefits of recreation and tourism this will bring, particularly for small businesses.

• Greater confidence and economic benefits for marine developers through simplification of the legislative framework and faster planning decisions with greater transparency and less uncertainty, and a reduction in administrative burdens by reducing the number of bodies that business needs to deal with;

• Improved ability to take quick, tough action to protect marine species and habitats, strengthened fisheries and environmental management arrangements to allow more effective action to conserve ecosystems, and the tools we need to meet our international marine conservation obligations;

• More efficient use of marine resources, taking account of current usage and potential future demand, with better opportunities for all stakeholders to help shape the way in which our seas are managed;

• More effective delivery, regulation and enforcement in the marine area by bringing together functions in the Marine Management Organisation;

• Flexible, proportionate and targeted marine licensing provisions will ensure that activities with little or no adverse impact on the environment, marine heritage or other legitimate uses of the sea do not a

In addition to the proposals in the Bill, the Government is also undertaking the following activity:

• Preparing to set the first three, five-year, Carbon budgets by 1 June 2009 (subject to the Climate Change Bill which is currently being considered by Parliament) and an action plan to meet them;
• Consulting on secondary legislation on the proposed Carbon Reduction Commitment - an emissions trading scheme capturing energy use emissions from large non-energy intensive organisations;
• Consulting in the summer on the options for increasing the use of renewable energy, in the context of the EU target for 20% of Europe’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2020;
• Responding to the Pitt Review into the 2007 floods;
carrying out a review of competition in the water industry and charging and tariffs for water;
• Publishing a draft water and flooding bill for consultation.