Page 33 - Lawtext Environmental Liabilty Journal Example

100 The UK draft Marine Bill : Wotton [2008] 3 Env. Liability
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The meaning of sea includes any area submerged at mean offshore of NI, but separate legislation may be put in
high water spring tide and the waters of every estuary, river place for NI to deal with its own territorial waters.
or channel, so far as the tide flows at mean high water spring • Scotland – Scottish ministers taking forward separately.
tide.
The Bill also provides for the preparing of a marine The draft Bill sets down procedure for preparation of these
policy statement (MPS). It is anticipated that this will be Marine Plans, which will be supplemented by guidance
prepared jointly by the UK government, the Welsh Assembly expected to be developed over the next two years. Again,
Government (WAG) and the Northern Ireland assembly. 2 there will be consultation on the Marine Plans but no public
The MPS will set out a framework of high level objectives examination.
for the marine environment and how it should be managed. 3 When determining an application for development of
It will reflect the strategic goals of the government and the marine environment, the decision maker will consider
devolved administrations which were developed in response both the MPS and the regional Marine Plan.
to the ‘Seas of Change’ consultation. These objectives are
likely to be consulted on later this year, which will be the Part 3: Marine licensing
first step in development of the MPS. The draft Bill consolidates and modernises the existing
The government states that the first MPS is expected licensing regime, which exists through the Food and
to be in place within two years of Royal Assent. This is an Environment Protection Act 1985 and the Coast Protection
admirable aspiration but we can expect there to be Act 1949. There have been amendments to these Acts over
considerable input from interested parties on the content the years, and this has resulted in a complex, overlapping
of the MPS (both during the drafting phase and when system in need of change. The new licensing system is
consulted upon) which will delay the process. Similar to intended to be simpler, faster, less costly and proportionate.
National Policy Statements (NPSs), there is no provision There will be a single consenting process for decisions that
for public examination of the content. are currently subject to different procedural rules under
It will be interesting to see how the MPS is developed, the Acts mentioned above. This will also enable the licensing
and whether the proposals elicit the same level of authority to consider all of the relevant factors
Parliamentary debate as the NPS did when the Planning simultaneously.
Bill was introduced. Concerns were raised about whether For those projects which straddle the land/sea boundary,
the process for making NPSs was robust. As a result of this, and where issues of flood risk and land drainage arise, the
there have been amendments to the Planning Bill which MMO may, with the collaboration and consent of the
require there to be parliamentary scrutiny of any new NPS Environment Agency, incorporate the necessary flood risk
or amendments to an NPS. We are likely to see the Marine management and land drainage conditions as part of the
Bill being similarly amended. licence.
In addition to the MPS, the draft Bill proposes separate Clause 59 of the draft Bill prohibits the carrying on of a
Marine Plans which will be prepared for the ‘marine ‘licensable marine activity’, or causing or permitting
planning regions’. There will be different planning another person to carry out such an activity, except in
authorities responsible for these regions: accordance with a marine licence. ‘Licensable marine
activities’ include deposits at sea, scuttling, construction,
• England - UK government departments (in most cases dredging and incineration.
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this will be the MMO) for waters off the coast of Two of the most high profile types of marine
England and the entire offshore area of Great Britain development will be affected by the proposals: harbour
beyond 12 nautical miles. developments and off-shore wind farms.
• Wales - WAG for Welsh territorial waters. With regards to harbour developments, these currently
• Northern Ireland - Northern Ireland departments will require more than one consent issued by different
agree plans with the UK government for the waters government departments. Under the proposals in the draft
Bill a single body, the MMO in the case of England, will be
the decision maker. The Harbours Act 1964 will also be

2 As mentioned above, Scotland will have a separate, although
likely similar, system. 4 This does not affect the rights of harbour authorities to carry
3 Similar to the National Policy Statements proposed by the out maintenance dredging where that is permitted by a local Act or
Planning Bill. Harbour Order.

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