Pilot Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Spatial Plan. Habitats Regulations Appraisal Record.

5 Summary of Findings

5.1 The general policies included in the Pilot Plan are safeguarding or mitigating policies. As outlined in Table 1, they are general in direction and apply to all activities and development in the PFOW marine environment. In consequence, no connectivity or direct pathway for impact has been identified between these policies and specific European sites; and as such, none of the general policies are considered to have a LSE on a specific European site.

5.2 As presented in Table 1, the majority of the sectoral policies in the Pilot Plan are also general in direction, and do not direct development or activities to a particular location; nor do they promote an action that clearly has a link or pathway to potential effects on specific European sites. As such, these policies have been screened out of the HRA process. Two of the sectoral policies (relating to aquaculture and renewable energy) were considered to reiterate existing policy and contained proposals that have been generated and assessed under other plans. As a consequence, both policies were also screened out of the assessment.

5.3 In conclusion, the review of both the general and sectoral policies found that the policies in the Pilot Plan would have no LSE on any European sites.