Scapa Flow Historic Marine Protected Area - designation proposal: final business and regulatory impact assessment – 18 July 2025

Executive summary

Issue and why it needs to be addressed

There are a number of marine historic assets within the Scapa Flow Historic MPA which are of national importance. The range of assets include wrecked vessels lying on the seabed as well as objects, structures and artefacts which represent the largest relatively accessible concentration of warship wrecks and associated features in the UK, and possibly European waters. Designating the site as a Historic MPA will help to maintain the physical remains of marine assets within the area, honouring the significance of the role that Scapa Flow played as a naval base of the 20th Century, and significant events in wartime naval history that took place there.

Intended outcomes

The intended outcomes are best described by the site preservation objectives, namely:

a) to minimise loss of marine historic assets within the area; and

b) to prevent the removal, wholly or partly, of the marine historic assets from within the Scapa Flow Historic MPA, except where Historic Environment Scotland and/or the Scottish Ministers are satisfied that this is desirable for the purpose of making significant contribution to the protection of the marine historic assets or to knowledge about marine cultural heritage.

Options

A number of potential options were considered by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) as part of the long list analysis and engagement exercise, they undertook prior to the 2019 Scottish Government consultation. The long list is presented further on in this document, but based on feedback, was narrowed down to only two being fully considered as viable options and therefore more fully assessed as part of this BRIA and the public consultation.

Option 1 - the ‘do nothing’ option.

This is the baseline scenario. The existing status of the seven wrecks of the German High Seas Fleet as scheduled monuments under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act (1979) would remain. The two scheduled monuments comprise respectively, the remains of seven vessels - four light cruisers (SM9308), and three battleships (SM9298) of the German High Seas Fleet, scuttled in Scapa Flow on 21 June 1919 - together with an area of sea bed around each wreck in which associated debris is scattered. The sum total extent of the scheduled areas around the seven wrecks amounts to 1.32 km^².

Under this option, statutory designation would not be extended to include other marine historic assets of national importance identified in the area. The Orkney and Pentland Firth Waters Marine Plan may afford some level of consideration for assets in relation to development management, however, this leaves some activities largely unregulated (e.g. recovery of artefacts from the wrecks unless removal falls within the regulatory scope of marine licensing and works licensing).

Since 2001, surveys have revealed much wider surviving evidence, including many assets which are probably of equivalent importance to what is already protected, but which are currently vulnerable, particularly to unregulated recovery of artefacts. The ‘do nothing option’ means that these assets will lack appropriate recognition, and remain vulnerable to damage and loss for example through vulnerability to unregulated salvage activities or recovery of artefacts without recording, conservation or reporting.

Option 2 - designate the site as a Historic MPA.

This is the preferred option as described in this document. It involves designation under sections 67 and 73 of the 2010 Act, of an area of seabed amounting to 10.69 km^². Located within the area are the remains of around 80 recorded sites of wrecked vessels, salvage sites, blockships, boom defence structures and debris. By comparison with the existing scheduling designation, this represents an increase in designated area of 9.32 km^².

HES’ review of the information has concluded that the marine historic assets located in this area meet the criterion of national importance required to merit designation. The options appraisal has considered that this option is the most desirable and practicable in the case of Scapa Flow.

The Historic MPA is intended to replace use of scheduling for statutory protection of the seven wrecks of the German High Seas Fleet. HES considers that the level of protection afforded to these wrecks through scheduling and designation as a Historic MPA is effectively the same, extending to the remains of the vessels, the contents, and the debris surrounding the wrecks. HES’ consultation invited views on two options: a) removal of scheduled monument status once the Historic MPA comes into force; or b) retaining scheduled monument status for these wrecks for a period of up to 1 year after the Historic MPA comes into force. The map below illustrates how the scheduling boundaries would be overlapped by the Historic MPA boundary.

Sectors affected

The following sectors have been identified as present (or possibly present in the future) within the proposed Scapa Flow Historic MPA, and/or potentially interacting with the marine historic assets in some way.

• Aquaculture
• Coastal defence and flood protection
• Mineral extraction
• Commercial fisheries
• Energy generation and energy/communications transmission
• Oil and Gas
• Marine traffic
• Recreational boating
• The diving industry
• Salvage industry
• Public sector.

Engagement completed, ongoing and planned

HES and the Scottish Government have undertaken extensive stakeholder engagement with relevant internal policy areas and externally with industry and other interested parties, including representatives of the fisheries, ports and heritage sectors. Engagement has been implemented via bi-lateral meetings, presentations to forums and Councils, direct emails and formal consultation.

Due to the impacts of COVID-19, work to progress the proposal was paused and then restarted in 2024. At this point, the Scottish Government engaged with all previous respondents to the 2019 consultation as well as a number of additional individuals and organisations who had not previously responded.

Anticipated impacts (intended and unintended, positive and negative) and mitigating actions

On balance, option 1 results in no change. Option 2 is likely to result in a modest increase in administrative costs to the public sector and to business.

HES has considered the impact of the proposal to designate the Scapa Flow Historic MPA against option 1, the baseline scenario. This assessment has used socio-economic data published in National Marine Planning interactive (NMPi), information compiled through the engagement programme with Orkney stakeholders and through the public consultation, and socio-economic figures prepared for the purposes of MPA impact assessment by Marine Directorate and ABPMER (2013)^[1]

Option

1. Do nothing (existing German High Seas Fleet wrecks remain as scheduled monuments

Anticipated impacts

The option balances sustainable economic growth with effective protection for some assets but would leave a significant number of nationally important marine historic assets vulnerable to damage and loss.

Option

2. Designate as an Historic MPA

Anticipated impacts

Likely to provide a flexible and proportionate form of protection for use in Scapa Flow, while supporting key economic interests in the wrecks (e.g. the dive tourism businesses).

An appropriate tool for recognising the national importance of marine historic assets that exist at landscape scale, arising from Scapa Flow’s key role as a naval base of outstanding importance to the UK during two world wars.

Aligns with the favoured approach to marine heritage protection across Scotland and minimises any duplication of consenting, envisaging many decisions being taken locally with advice from HES.

Offers a range of opportunities for beneficial management and for collaboration with key stakeholders – preparation of a management plan would be desirable.

Enforcement/compliance

Designation of the site will place duties on competent authorities with functions capable of adversely affecting the assets to carry out their functions in a way that best furthers or, where this is not possible, least hinders the stated preservation objectives. Decision makers must consider impacts on the preservation objectives and decisions must be taken in accordance with marine plans and policies.

Periodic monitoring should would be carried out primarily by a marine archaeology services contractor on behalf of HES, which would likely be a marine archaeology service contractor. Citizen science also has the potential to make a significant contribution through involvement of community interests. HES will continue to work with local communities, the police and other justice partners on enforcement. The 2010 Act also provides enforcement powers to Marine Enforcement Officers (MEOs), include boarding vessels and marine installations, entering and inspecting premises and vehicles, powers of search and seizure, forcing vessels to port, and requiring production of certain information. It envisaged that the Marine Directorate will take the lead role on this area, working closely with HES and other justice partners as required.

Recommendations/implementation plans

The recommendation is to designate an area of seabed amounting to 10.69 km^² within Scotland’s territorial waters as the Scapa Flow Historic MPA for the purpose of preserving nationally important marine historic assets located within the area in connection with Scapa Flow’s role as a naval harbour of outstanding strategic importance to the UK during two world wars. This will ensure a common approach to the protection of Scotland’s outstanding marine natural and cultural heritage, affording additional protection for this nationally important site to that currently available through other mechanisms (e.g. marine planning). Alignment with the marine planning/licensing system helps to minimise duplication of effort on consenting regimes and therefore costs to both industry and government.

The proposed designation includes an area of seabed where seven wrecks of the German High Seas Fleet are located that are currently designated as scheduled monuments. At HES’ consultation, there was no strong view either way as to whether the scheduling designation of these wrecks should be removed when the Historic MPA comes into force, or if it should remain in place for a transition period of 1 year. On balance however, a period of up to a 1 year of transition is considered desirable to ensure that stakeholders have time to adapt to the new designation and to understand what it means.

The recommendation to designate the proposed site is supported by the outcome of extensive stakeholder engagement and public consultation responses.

Evaluation and monitoring of implementation/review of BRIA

HES will review the existing scheduled status of the seven wrecks within a year of the Historic MPA designation, with a view to removal of scheduled status at that stage.