National Marine Plan 2 (NMP2) Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Scoping Report: Consultation Analysis

2. Assessments

Under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 a sustainability appraisal is required to assess the potential impacts from the proposed policies in NMP2, on marine sectors, communities and the marine environment.

As part of the sustainability appraisal a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) will be conducted alongside the development of the NMP2. This process is designed to determine the likely impacts of the policies on the environment and allow for subsequent adjustment to policies, in the plan, where required, to minimise the identified impacts.

The first stage in the SEA was a scoping exercise culminating in the production of a scoping report, published 25 September 2023.

This scoping report sets out the remit of the SEA and the level of detail to be covered in the assessment. The SEA scoping report outlines the:

• policy context
• environmental baseline
• proposed methodology for assessment

The scoping report was developed with input from key stakeholders.

Initial review, considering a precautionary approach, suggests that all SEA environmental topics are to be scoped into the assessment due to the nature and scale of NMP2 and the potential for likely significant effects to occur across all topics.

Therefore, the SEA is proposed to consider:

• biodiversity, flora and fauna
• population and human health
• soil (including marine geology, sediments, and coastal processes)
• water
• air
• climatic factors
• material assets
• cultural heritage
• landscape and seascape
• inter-relationships between them