To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs whether the Bateman Principle is part of any policy decision making or legislative development in his Department.

Previous Ministers concluded that the current Northern Ireland policy on coastal management, known as the Bateman Formula from 1967, is now outdated. In 2015, a Coastal Forum was established and co-chaired by the then Minister for Regional Development and the Minister of the Environment to discuss coastal issues and to seek to adopt a more strategic approach to coastal change management.

I am committed to continuing with a joint approach between my Department, DfI, the coastal councils and the National Trust. A comprehensive Work Programme has been developed by the Coastal Forum Working Group and has been agreed by myself and Minister Mallon. We also recently requested that officials organise a Coastal Policy workshop to initiate policy development that will eventually replace the Bateman approach, which is essentially a coastal protection policy and is unsustainable in the long term.