Foulness Island passing of the Ministry of Defence Act 1946 and the subsequent rationalisation of five agencies in 1971, ownership of the island passed from the War Office to the Ministry of Defence. In 2003, a contract to manage the testing of munitions was awarded to the defence contractors QinetiQ, and they also control access to the island. In the 1850s, the South Essex Estuary and Reclamation Company proposed a grand scheme to reclaim around of land on the Essex coast, which would have included most of Foulness Sands and Maplin Sands. The civil engineer Sir John Rennie produced the plans, and
Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia successful type of governance mechanism and that this experience requires to be recorded. A Lessons Learned Consortium was formed comprising the NGO Oceans Beyond Piracy , the European Union Institute of Security Studies, and the Counter-Piracy Governance Project at Cardiff University . The results of the project are published on a dedicated website , which also serves as the official website and repository of the CGPCS. The US Department of State recently quoted the accomplishments of the Group as : Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia The Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, commonly