Partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (Northern North Sea) - Fisheries Management Measures within Scottish Offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

Public Sector Costs

The decision to implement fisheries management measures would result in additional costs incurred by the public sector for compliance and enforcement. An estimate for the annual costs associated with compliance and enforcement has been informed by Marine Scotland Compliance.

Compliance costs were estimated for the full 21 sites. Due to vessel traffic and site numbers, it is estimated that 60% of the costs would be assigned to the North North Sea sites assessed in this BRIA.

Option 3: Do nothing

In the absence of the proposed measures a significant amount of Scotland’s offshore marine species and habitats are at risk to potentially damaging fishing activity, existing fisheries measures excepted. Under this option, environmental damage may occur, and therefore site conservation objectives would not be achieved.

Future costs may arise from this through processes outlined under Rationale for Government Intervention.

Cost summary tables

Table 12 outlines the overall estimated costs for each option detailing the GVA impact, loss in value of landings, public sector costs and impacts on employment, as discussed under each option above.

A full breakdown of costs per site is available in Annex B.