Partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment - Amendment of the West of Scotland Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area (NCMPA) site boundary

Objective

For NCMPAs, under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 and Marine Scotland Act 2010, Scottish Ministers have a duty to exercise functions which could significantly affect an NCMPA in a manner that best furthers the conservation objectives of the site (or where that is not possible, least hinders the achievement of the objectives).

There are national and international commitments for Scotland and the UK to support an MPA network which contributes to conservation or improvement of the marine environment such as;

• The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010
• The Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009
• The Convention on Biological Diversity
• The World Summit on Sustainable Development
• The OSPAR Convention
• UK Marine Strategy
• Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994, the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, and the Conservation of Offshore Marine Habitats and Species Regulations 2017.

We manage the MPA network under the principles of sustainable use and by doing so we protect the natural goods and services they provide for current and future generations to enjoy. By protecting our natural capital, we protect and support the services provided by healthy, productive and biodiverse marine ecosystems, building resilience into marine industries and strengthening food security.

The objective of this policy proposal is to amend the site boundary of the West of Scotland MPA due to an error in the original designation. This will help to ensure Scottish Ministers have exclusive management competence for the entire MPA and allow future management measures to be implemented across the whole site to support the achievement of site conservation objectives.

The first BRIA completed for this MPA was published on the 13 October 2020 which can be viewed here: West of Scotland Marine Protected Area: business and regulatory impact assessment - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). This BRIA examined the socio-economic effects of designating the West of Scotland MPA under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009.

The proposal of fisheries management measures within Scottish offshore MPAs and their socio-economic effects has been assessed in two additional partial BRIAs covering the Northern North Sea and North West Waters. These partial BRIAs have also been published within the consultation documentation package. The socio-economic effects of introducing fisheries management measures within West of Scotland NCMPA are not considered within this BRIA. This socio-economic assessment can be viewed within the North West Waters BRIA.

This partial BRIA will review some of the findings of this first BRIA which are still considered relevant to the proposed amended site boundary of the West of Scotland NCMPA. The baseline of this partial BRIA is the currently designated MPA site boundary, including the “Special Area”.