Marine planning zones - proposals to extend to 12 nautical miles: impact assessments

Introduction

Marine planning zones set out the spatial limits for particular local authorities responsibilities for planning controls of marine fish and shellfish farms in Scottish waters.

In 2007 the definition of “development” in the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (“the 1997 Act”) was extended to include fish and shellfish farming out to 12 nautical miles. This means that any proposed marine fish or shellfish farm located between 0-12 nautical miles requires planning permission from the relevant planning authority.

The Town and Country Planning (Marine Fish Farming) (Scotland) Order 2007 (“the 2007 Order”) designated Scotland’s marine planning zones as extending out to 3 nautical miles. Full details on the policy intention and approach to designating the marine planning zones can be viewed in the Consultation Paper on Defining Marine Boundaries for Fish Farming, published on 31 October 2005

In practice this means that there is no planning authority to which a developer may submit an application for a farm located between 3-12 nautical miles.

It is therefore proposed that the marine planning zones should be extended to 12 nautical miles (excluding those marine planning zones that are enclosed by other marine planning zones), to enable businesses to explore opportunities to develop fish and shellfish farms in this zone.

Extension of the marine planning zones would be carried out by the means of an affirmative Scottish Statutory Instrument (SSI) to amend The Town and Country Planning (Marine Fish Farming) (Scotland) Order 2007.

The Scottish Government is required to consider the impacts of proposed policies, plans or strategic decisions in relation to equalities, various societal groups and sectors, data protection and the environment, under a range of legislation and commitments.

Given the amendment regulations will be of an administrative and technical nature, we have screened out a number of the impact assessments. Further detail is set out throughout this document.