West of Scotland Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area (NCMPA) site boundary amendment: final business and regulatory impact assessment

Public Consultation

A formal public consultation was undertaken in 2024. It sought views on proposed measures for 20 offshore MPAs and a boundary amendment for the West of Scotland MPA. The consultation included a mix of closed and open-ended questions, addressing general policy views, site-specific measures, and the socio-economic and environmental impacts of the proposals.

A total of 3,881 valid responses were received, with 97% submitted by individuals and 3% by organisations.

50% of the 135 respondents who addressed the West of Scotland MPA question supported the proposed boundary amendment, while 40% were neutral, and only 10% opposed it. Supporters, including various stakeholders, highlighted benefits such as enhanced jurisdictional clarity for Scottish authorities and improved management and enforcement of conservation measures.

Following the consultation, a Ministerial decision has been made to make an:

Amendment to site boundary under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009

This seeks to resolve an error in the original designation and remove the overlap of the UK Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ) extending beyond the UK continental shelf limits and onto the Special Area and Faroese continental shelf is removed. This amendment will remove the “Special Area” from the current MPA designation. This will exclude this overlap and align the UK Continental Shelf limit, reducing the site size by a total of 2,307km² (2.1% reduction), as known in Figure 1.

There will be no changes to the management measures already in place such as the prohibition of deep-sea trawling (deeper than 800m) and use of set nets (deeper than 600m).

JNCC has provided scientific advice of the biodiversity with the overlap of the Special Area, which shows that the area largely comprises of deep-sea sedimentary habitats, with sparse records present for two seabed features and three mobile species along with modelled distribution data for the seabed. These records are shown in Figure 2, with further information on the feature data available in Table 1. The Special Area that intersects with the site does not overlap with Key Geodiversity Areas but overlaps portions of the Geological/Geomorphological features of ‘Marine constructional deep-ocean’ and ‘Mass movement feature’.

It is JNCC’s scientific opinion that this will not adversely affect the ecological integrity of the West of Scotland MPA, due primarily to the relatively small scale in site size reduction and the relative sparseness of feature records in the area.

Sectors and groups affected

In the first published BRIA a range of activities were identified as present (or possibly present in the future) within the proposed West of Scotland MPA, these activities would still be considered relevant activities within the current designation and proposed boundary amendment of the West of Scotland MPA:

• Commercial Fisheries
• Power Interconnectors
• Telecommunication Cables
• Oil and Gas
• Military Activities
• Deep Sea Mining

While the above sectors are all potentially operational within the West of Scotland MPA, not all will be necessarily impacted by the amendment of the site boundary. As the existing management measures will remain the same, there are no proposed significant impacts expected to occur for any sectors or groups.

Benefits

Amendment to site boundary under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009

Amendment to the West of Scotland MPA will resolve an error in the original site designation extending beyond the continental shelf and into the Special Area and Faroese Continental shelf limit claims. This will help to ensure exclusive management competence for the entire MPA and allow future management measures to be implemented across the whole site to achieve the required conservation objectives.

There are no further proposed benefits to arise from this boundary amendment as this policy is unlikely to have significant impacts to the MPA. An additional BRIA relating to the implementation of proposed future fisheries management measures capture the benefits expected to be achieved from that policy implementation. This BRIA will be finalised and published in 2025.

Contribution to an Ecologically Coherent MPA network

This boundary amendment will continue to help to conserve the range of biodiversity in the West of Scotland MPA and for Scotland as a whole and will contribute to establishing an ecologically coherent network of marine protected areas. The boundary amendment will help to ensure the Scottish Government has exclusive management competence across the whole site, so any necessary future management measures to achieve the conservation objectives can be implemented.

As stated above, it is JNCC’s scientific opinion that this boundary amendment will not adversely affect the ecological integrity of the West of Scotland MPA, due primarily to the relatively small scale in site size reduction and the relative sparseness of feature records in the area.

Ecosystem services benefits and non-use value

The West of Scotland MPA will continue to have the same continued ecosystem services benefits with the original designation and post boundary amendment. The boundary amendment of the site will continue to support the conservation objectives of the site and its features. No added additional ecosystem services benefits or non-use values benefits are expected to be assumed with the boundary amendment of the site that were not already captured within the original designation.

Commercial Fisheries

Benefits have been evaluated based on the comparison of boundary amendment of the MPA to the current designation of the MPA with the existing management measures in place. The are no proposed additional benefits expected under the boundary amendment as the only change will be to the existing site boundary which will be reduced by only 2.14%. All existing management measures will remain the same.

There is a formal agreement between the UK and the Kingdom of Denmark and the Government of the Faroe Islands which provides for the Faroese “Special Area” or Faroese Grey Zone, an area where the UK shares certain rights and jurisdiction (including fisheries) with the Kingdom of Denmark and the Faroe Islands. In this zone both parties can manage their own fisheries as they see fit. This means the Faroe Islands manage their own fisheries within this area. The removal of this area and amendment to the MPA boundary will not impact fisheries access to this area, as it will not affect the agreement and the licensing of vessels with permission to access the Special Area. Amending the boundary and removing the overlap with the Special Area will mean Scottish Ministers would have full jurisdiction within the NCMPA for any future fisheries management required to ensure conservation objectives of the site are being met.