UK dolphin and porpoise conservation strategy: consultation

Introduction

Thank you for taking the time to consider this consultation paper. We would welcome your views on the UK Dolphin and Porpoise Conservation Strategy.

This strategy has been developed by Scottish Government in collaboration with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the Welsh Government (WG), Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Northern Ireland (DAERA) and the UK Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies (Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), Natural England (NE), Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH)).

Questions

This consultation seeks your views on the following questions:

1. Do you support the implementation of the UK Dolphin and Porpoise Conservation Strategy?
2. Do you agree that the evidence presented supports the case for the strategy?
3. Do you have any comments on the vulnerability assessments and the conclusions reached?
4. Do you have any comments on the actions that have been identified in the strategy?
5. Do you have any comments on the accessibility of the information in the documents?

What documents should I read to answer these questions?

The strategy has been divided into three supporting documents:

• The High Level Strategy –This document includes the aims and objectives of the strategy; summary tables of the results of the vulnerability assessments and the actions derived from those. The document refers to the relevant sections of the technical report and the action plan for further details.
• The Technical Report – This document provides the methodologies for the vulnerability and confidence assessments; full tables of results and further detail on existing measures.
• The Action Plan – This document provides a table for each of the actions to detail what action will look to address, the lead organisations, a description of the issue, links to other ongoing work and delivery partners.

How to respond to this consultation

You are invited to respond to this consultation by 14 June at 23:59.

Please respond to the consultation using the Scottish Government's consultation hub, Citizen Space (https://consult.gov.scot/). Access and respond to this consultation online at https://consult.gov.scot/marine-conservation/uk-dolphin-and-porpoise-conservation-strategy/.

You can save and return to your responses while the consultation is still open. Please ensure that consultation responses are submitted before the closing date of 14 June at 23:59.

If you are unable to respond using our consultation hub, please complete the Respondent Information Form (as shown in Appendix B). Without this form we will not know how you would like your response processed. Please send the completed form with your response to:

marine_conservation@gov.scot
Or
Marine Conservation
Scottish Government
Area 1B North
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ

If you have any enquiries please direct them to marine_conservation@gov.scot

Handling your response

If you respond using the consultation hub, you will be directed to the About You page before submitting your response. Please indicate how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are content for your response to published. If you ask for your response not to be published, we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

To find out how we handle your personal data, please see our privacy policy: https://www.gov.scot/privacy/.