Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009

Liabilities E+W

305 Restricting liabilities of Natural England and the Secretary of State E+W

(1) No duty of care is owed by Natural England to any person under the law of negligence—

(a) when preparing or submitting proposals under section 51 or 55 of the 1949 Act (long-distance routes and variations of such routes) pursuant to the coastal access duty,

(b) in connection with any failure by it to erect, under paragraph 6 of Schedule 20, a notice or sign of the kind mentioned in sub-paragraph (2)(b) of that paragraph (notices or signs warning of obstacles or hazards), or

(c) in connection with any failure by it to exclude or restrict access under Chapter 2 of Part 1 of the CROW Act to any land which is coastal margin, other than a failure within subsection (2).

(2) A failure is within this subsection if it arises as a result of Natural England—

(a) deciding not to act in accordance with an application under section 24 or 25 of that Act, or

(b) deciding not to act in accordance with representations made by a person on being consulted under section 27(5) of that Act (consultation of original applicant etc before revoking or varying a direction).

(3) In subsections (1) and (2) the references to Natural England include any person acting on its behalf.

(4) No duty of care is owed by the Secretary of State to any person under the law of negligence when—

(a) approving proposals (with or without modifications) under section 52 or 55 of the 1949 Act pursuant to the coastal access duty, or

(b) giving a direction under section 55 of that Act, pursuant to that duty.

306 Occupiers' liability E+W

In section 1 of the Occupiers' Liability Act 1984 (c. 3) (duty of occupier to persons other than the occupier's visitors), after subsection (6A) insert—

“(6AA) Where the land is coastal margin for the purposes of Part 1 of that Act (including any land treated as coastal margin by virtue of section 16 of that Act), subsection (6A) has effect as if for paragraphs (a) and (b) of that subsection there were substituted “ a risk resulting from the existence of any physical feature (whether of the landscape or otherwise). ””