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LANDMARK LEGISLATION

Passed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament, the Marine

(Scotland) Act joins the UKGovernments Marine and

Coastal Access Act as landmark legislation for planning and

managing our marine resources and the uses made of them.Just what are the key elements of this Act, the differences

and similarities with the UK Bill and what will

implementation of this legislation mean in practice?

In February, the Marine (Scotland) Bill was

passed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament

and received Royal Assent in March becoming

the Marine (Scotland) Act and complementing

the Marine and Coastal Access Act. But what

does this mean in reality for managing Scotlands

marine resources? Rhona Fairgrieve from the

Scottish Coastal Forum* (SCF) delves further.

SCOTLANDS

MARINEBILL

CREATING SUSTAINABLE

SEAS FOR ALL

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The Edgemagazine

Far left: Common seals hauled

out on sands, Angus, North

East Scotland.

Left: Salmon farm, Orkney.

RhonaFairgrieve

WHERE THE ACTS DIFFERThere are some fundamental differences between the two

Acts. The Scottish Act for example does not formalise

coastal access as this was dealt with under the Land Reform

Act 2004. Neither does it modernise inshore fishery

management, which is dealt with under separate, though

related, policy although it does modernise legislation

relating to the management of seals. Finally, it does not

directly create a Marine Management Organisation (MMO)

as that is already in place.

MARINE SCOTLANDIn April 2009, the Scottish Government created its own

MMO by reorganising three existing policy divisions

(Scottish Governments marine and coastal policy functions,

the scientific capacity from the Fisheries Research Service

REACH OF THE MARINE(SCOTLAND) ACT STRATEGYThe Marine (Scotland) Act applies in Scotlands territorial

waters, from the Mean High Water Mark out to 12 nautical

miles (nm). Under the Scotland Act 1998, which devolved

powers to a Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, this area is

entirely within the scope of Scottish legislation although

some activities such as defence and merchant shippingremain reserved to Westminster.

Beyond 12nm, the UK Marine and Coastal Acts provisions

are in place in the waters around Scotland. However, a

ground-breaking agreement between the Scottish

Government and Defra in 2008 allows Scottish Ministers to

make decisions on the area right out to 200nm, subject to

Westminsters agreement. This system of executive devolution

is designed to reduce problems with overlap between different

marine jurisdictions and allows Scottish Ministers de facto

control over planning and nature conservation matters fromthe shoreline to the limit of Scottish fisheries waters.

SIMILARITIES WITH THE UK ACTThree aspects of the Scottish Marine Act are directly

comparable with the UK Act. It:

1. establishes a mechanism for marine planning

2. modernises and streamlines the marine consenting process

3. provides for the creation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs),

the Scottish equivalent of MCZs, allowing areas of national

importance for nature conservation and historic wrecks to

contribute to an ecologically coherent network of sites

The Act also provides Scottish Marine Enforcement Officers

with more flexible enforcement powers, allowing them to

monitor and enforce the marine licensing and conservation

provisions.

Over 11,000km of coastline

(when measured at the 1:50,000 scale)

130 inhabited islands

20% of the Scottish population lives within 1k of the

coast; over 70% lives within 10k

Scotlands territorial sea (from coastline to 12nm)

represents 53% of the total area of Scotland

Marine industries and assets generate over 2.2 billion

for the Scottish economy

Around 50,000 jobs supported by marine resources

(excluding oil and gas)

Scotlands seas are home to 40,000 species, including

6,500 species of animals and plants

Scotlands Marine and Coastal resource

Ian

Hay

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for consultation during 2011. It will tie in with Scotlands

terrestrial National Planning Framework, which already

highlights major infrastructure developments in coastal

areas. These include the reconfiguration of port facilities and

the building of a fith crossing over the Firth of Forth.

Finally, from 2011, the regional level will be developed so

that stakeholders feel they have an input to Regional

Marine Plans, which will complement the National MarinePlan and add greater detail to its proposals. As part of the

secondary legislation process, Marine Scotland will shortly

carry out a consultation exercise on potential boundaries for

Scottish Marine Regions (SMRs), with the intention that

these are confirmed by the end of 2010.

Regional Marine Planning PartnershipsThe Scottish Marine Act provides for Marine Planning

Partnerships (MPPs) to be created so that the responsibility

of developing Regional Marine Plans can be devolved from

Marine Scotland to the local level. This is a fundamentaldifference between the two Acts; the UK Act only allows for

the UK MMO to undertake marine planning in its area of

jurisdiction.

The role of Scotlands well-established network of Local

Coastal Partnerships (LCPs), and the more recent Scottish

Sustainable Marine Environmental Initiative (SSMEI) pilot

projects that examined how marine planning might be

done, is unclear at present. Consideration will need to be

given to what role they may play in the new regime. For

example, where there are multiple local authorities around aFirth (estuary) it may be more appropriate for an

independent organisation such as an established LCP with a

track record in delivering ICZM to act as lead authority in

the creation of a Regional Marine Plan.

BALANCING ENVIRONMENTAL AND

SOCIOECONOMIC ISSUESThe balance between environmental and social/economic

aspects is the subject of much supporting work.

and the enforcement element of the Scottish Fisheries

Protection Agency) to create a new Marine Directorate,

known as Marine Scotland.

In force now for a year, Marine Scotland has driven the

passage of the Marine (Scotland) Act through the

Parliamentary process. This gives it an unparalleled

understanding of the legislations component parts with

members of the Bill Team now moving to posts that willdeliver what has been created by the framework Act.

IMPLEMENTATIONUndoubtedly, 2010 will be a challenging and interesting

year as the devil in the detail emerges and the different

parts of the Act settle into place. Marine Scotland will be

focussing on a number of key aspects to flesh out the

framework created by the Act. Most notable of these aspects

will be developing the marine planning process within

Scotlands territorial waters and liaising with Defra and the

MMO so that the new consenting regimes are consistent

across the UK.

A THREE TIER MARINE PLANNING PROCESS

Marine planning in Scotland will occur as part of a three

tier process. At the top is the international level, where

Scotland will interact with England, Northern Ireland and

neighbouring states around the North Sea.

At the national level, a draft National Marine Plan for

Scotland will be developed during 2010 and will be put out

Left: Daily flight from Glasgow

to Barra, Outer Hebrides.

Lifeline air link runs the only

scheduled service that makes

use of a beach as its runway.

RhonaFairgrieve

IanHay

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Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Association of

Marine Science are considering objectives relating to marine

ecosystems and socioeconomic elements, which will feed into

the development of the National Marine Plan and subsequent

documents.

TERRESTRIAL AND MARINE

PLANNING TENSIONSWho is going to do all this planning is another aspect that is

under consideration. Suddenly, the idea of Marine Planners is

much in vogue but creating a new breed of specialist from

scratch to satisfy the expected demand across government

and industry will not be easy. Marine Scotland is adamant

that marine planning shall not just be a wholesale exporting

of the terrestrial planning system offshore.

In a previous article on the UK Marine and Coastal Access

Act, Alex Midlen concluded that there seemed to be in-built

tensions between the environmental bias of marine planning

and the socioeconomic bias of the existing terrestrialplanning regime. Although there is uncertainty about the

new system and similar issues may well arise in Scotland,

there seems to be less outright angst about it at this stage.

This may well be due to the process of developing the Bill,

which was started under the previous Scottish administration

in 2005 and was deliberately intended to be inclusive and

achieve consensus between nature conservation interests and

marine industries.

Sustainable economic development has been the key driver

behind the Scottish Marine Bill this is not an

environmental Act per se, although it is designed to have

positive effects on the marine environment through

planning, improved licensing and management regimes.

THE NEXT 12 MONTHSLooking ahead, the next 12 months should see many of the

outstanding issues either resolved or at least progressing

towards resolution. Work on the Marine Policy Statement will

set the context for all the devolved administrations

relationship with the UK Marine and Coastal Act. The

development of a draft Scottish National Marine Plan will

consider that level of marine planning and will get to grips

with the amount of information required to support it.

Finally, decisions will be made about how marine planning

can be cascaded to the regional level and what will be

required to make this work.

There has been much hard work to get us to this stage and

there will be even more to set the Act into motion. For a

Politics geek who has one foot on dry land and the other

beyond MLWS, it has been a momentous time. And its going

to get even more interesting as the theory becomespractical reality.

Above:Traditional fishing boat and creels, Vatersay,

Outer Hebrides.

Rho

na

Fairg

rieve

*Rhona Fairgrieve runs the Scottish Coastal Forum, a stakeholder

body that advises the Scottish Government on matters relating to

coastal policy issues. Since 1996, the SCF has contributed to the

development of coastal and marine policy through a succession of

initiatives run by different administrations.

More information on the

Marine (Scotland) Act UK

More information on the

UK Marine and Coastal Access Act

http://www.coastnet.org.uk/theedgehttp://www.coastnet.org.uk/theedgehttp://www.snh.gov.uk/http://www.sams.ac.uk/http://www.sams.ac.uk/http://www.coastnet.org.uk/new-marine-and-coastal-legislation-ukhttp://www.coastnet.org.uk/new-marine-and-coastal-legislation-ukhttp://www.coastnet.org.uk/new-marine-and-coastal-legislation-ukmailto:rhona.fairgrieve@scotland.gsi.gov.ukhttp://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/seamanagement/regional/Scottish-Coastal-Forumhttp://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/seamanagement/marineacthttp://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/marine/legislation/mcaa/index.htmhttp://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/seamanagement/marineacthttp://www.coastnet.org.uk/new-marine-and-coastal-legislation-ukmailto:rhona.fairgrieve@scotland.gsi.gov.ukhttp://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/marine/legislation/mcaa/index.htmhttp://www.coastnet.org.uk/new-marine-and-coastal-legislation-ukhttp://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/seamanagement/regional/Scottish-Coastal-Forumhttp://www.coastnet.org.uk/theedgehttp://www.coastnet.org.uk/theedgehttp://www.sams.ac.uk/http://www.sams.ac.uk/http://www.snh.gov.uk/