Consultation Report on the Draft Scottish Marine REGIONS ORDER 2013

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Scottish Government published the Consultation on The Draft Scottish Marine Regions Order on the Scottish Government website on 6 December 2012 and the consultation closed on 28 February 2013. ^[1]

There were four questions and 37 written submissions were received by the deadline. Not all respondents answered all the questions. The 37 written submissions came from 2 individuals and 35 organisations.

Of the 37 respondents, 21 indicated their agreement with the boundaries proposed, 14 indicated that they were not in agreement, 2 respondents gave general comments only. Additional comments on the boundaries were provided by 21 respondents

4 of the Scottish marine region names have been amended in the draft Order to reflect the comments received. Western Isles is now "Outer Hebrides", South East is now "Forth and Tay", South West is now "Solway" and Moray now named "Moray Firth".

Several attempts were made to try to find a solution to the issues surrounding the use of 2 different co-ordinate systems, and the joining of co-ordinates between the 2 systems (World Geodetic System 1984 and Geodesic, and Ordnance Survey of Great Britain 1936 and Loxodromic). Given the complexity and the subsequent difficulty in interpretation, it was concluded that the most suitable solution was to no longer express the co-ordinates in 2 different systems. The co-ordinates in the Order are now shown in Ordnance Survey of Great Britain 1936 Datum.

There have been small amendments to the SMR boundaries in 3 areas and these have been reflected in the legislation. These were the boundary between the Solway and Clyde regions; the boundary between Orkney Islands/North Coast/Moray Firth Regions; and the boundary between the North East/Moray Firth regions.

The illustrative map to accompany the Order has been updated to reflect the boundary changes.

The Scottish Marine Regions Order 2013 establishing SMR boundaries will be laid in Parliament shortly, with a view to the Order coming into force in January 2014.