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THE UK DRAFT MARINE BILL – WILSON, TRIGGS :: :: : (2008) 20 ELM 141
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The UK draft Marine Bill – A new dawn for the
marine environment and offshore energy?

William Wilson*, Robert Triggs**
Burges Salmon

Overview of the Bill marine functions of government in waters around England
and, where not devolved, in the UK offshore area. It will be
Legislative background
rebuilt from the Marine and Fisheries Agency but with wider
The draft Marine Bill published by the UK Government in powers and functions. The practical implications of achieving
April 2008 is a manifesto commitment from the last this kind of amalgamation are often underestimated by
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election. It is the result of very extensive consultation over government, as staff are brought in from different agencies
a number of years, with the publication of a white paper with different terms and conditions, all fearing the worst
in 2007 and of a regular Marine Bill newsletter leading about how the changes will affect them. The sooner they
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up to its arrival. Other factors leading to the introduction can receive clear assurances about how exactly the MMO
of this legislation include the EU Marine Strategy Directive, will be structured, the better the prospects for an orderly
which has been adopted since the draft Bill’s publication. 3 and effective start to the new body.. .. . The MMO will have
This will require EU Member States to take the necessary responsibilities in areas which include marine research,
measures to achieve ‘good environmental status’ in their regulation, planning, harbour construction and alteration
waters. We consider some of the implications of that consents and Marine Act licensing.
commitment further in the section of this article on nature
conservation measures. Marine planning
The Marine Bill is also a response to the demands
and stresses on the sea which are constantly increasing; The Bill will introduce a new marine planning system. It
these include very intensive fisheries effort and in some will be based upon the model of having a statement of
case the collapse of marine fish stocks, the problem of long term objectives for the marine area around the UK,
ever growing pollution and climate change. Changes to with each region or area having more detailed and spatial
planning rules are justified by the government on the policies spelled out in marine plans, and the details relating
grounds of the increasingly competitive use of the marine to specific sites being dealt with at the local inquiry level.
area, for example as between navigation, production of The key Marine Policy Statement will be made on behalf
renewable energy with offshore wind farms, marine of the UK Government, the Welsh Assembly Government
dredging for gravel aggregates and other materials, and the Northern Ireland Assembly, while once again the
fisheries and so on. The Bill will have a complex application Scottish Ministers will go their own way. It looks as though
to the waters of the UK, as the devolved administrations the structure will have many of the advantages and
of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will apply it disadvantages of the proposed planning system reforms
differently, and in the case of Scotland an entirely separate outlined in the Planning Bill. The Infrastructure Planning
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Scottish Marine Bill will be brought forward. Commission – the body to be set up pursuant to the
Planning Bill to take major strategic planning decisions –
will issue development consents for major renewable
Marine Management Organisation
projects and harbours, and the government hopes to pre-
This government, like all others, retains its faith in the empt interminable planning inquiries by including the main
ability of new organisations to deliver administrative planning principles into a statement of national policy,
reform. Since no Bill is complete without a new organisation, leaving the details to be worked out locally.
the Bill will introduce the Marine Management Organisation This approach is welcome to developers, and
(MMO). This important new body is intended to deliver the unwelcome to potential objectors, some of whom, in the
UK’s main environmental, conservation and civic organisations
(representing five million members) parodied what will be
the Planning Act 2008 with a sponsored advertisement of
* Barrister, e-mail: william.wilson@burges-salmon.com.
** Associate, E-mail: robert.triggs@burges-salmon.com. a mock planning notice which reads:
1 http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm73/7351/
7351.pdf.
2 http://www.defra.gov.uk/marine/pdf/legislation/marinebill-
whitepaper07.pdf. 4 Bill 11 of 2007–8 session, presented to the House of Commons on
3 Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of The Council 27 November 2007 by Hazel Blears, Secretary of State, Department
of 17 June 2008 establishing a framework for community action in the for Communities and Local Government. http://www.communities.gov.
field of marine environmental policy (Marine Strategy Framework uk/planningandbuilding/planning/planningpolicyimplementation/
Directive). reformplanningsystem/planningbill/.

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