Protection pledged for UK seas

The bill also pledges better management of inshore fisheries and measures to speed up the approvals process for offshore windfarms by about a year, BBC news reported.

In England, it will open a new right of public access to coastal lands. Environmental groups say UK seas are "in crisis", and need more protection than the government is offering. The draft bill creates a new agency, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), to enforce environmental laws and regulate development at sea. 

Launching the bill, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn suggested there was a need to look after the seas and the wildlife they contain as a range of environmental threats looms. #

"Our seas are already showing the effects of climate change," he told BBC News, "and with increasing use of the sea by many competing interests, we must make sure that the marine environment can cope with changing conditions.

"We have a duty to look after our seas for future generations."