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

Section 2: Engagement and information gathering

Engagement approach

In preparing the priorities for action set out in its Marine Strategy, Historic Scotland carried out a detailed programme of stakeholder engagement involving preparation of a discussion paper Towards a strategy (Historic Scotland 2009), public consultation on the strategy, the final version of which was published in 2012.

Additional engagement on matters in relation to Historic MPAs took place through the Scottish Government’s Marine Strategy Forum, and, since the creation of Historic Environment Scotland (HES) on 1 October 2015, through bi-lateral meetings with industry and other interested parties, including representatives of the fisheries, ports and heritage sectors.

Consideration of this case first began in 2012 and exploratory meetings were held in Orkney with a wide range of stakeholders during 2013 before the case was put on hold from 2014 to 2016. HES then undertook a public engagement programme about Scapa Flow before progressing the case further. This followed the organisation’s ‘What’s Your Heritage’ project in 2016-17 which indicated that communities want to be more involved in designation decisions.

The engagement programme in December 2017 aimed to explore what the marine heritage of Scapa Flow means to the Orkney community and visitors from far afield. 450 people responded to an online survey, 17 people attended our drop-in events on Orkney, and HES held meetings with five organisations.

The following key issues emerged in relation to the management of Scapa Flow’s marine heritage:

• Balancing effective protection for Scapa Flow’s wartime underwater heritage with the sustainable economic growth of Orkney;
• How to approach the beneficial management of historic wrecks that are deteriorating in condition;
• Investigating, protecting and promoting Scapa Flow’s wartime underwater heritage needs to be taken forward in collaboration with Orkney Islands Council, and involving community interests on Orkney, and other key stakeholders.

The findings of the engagement programme have informed HES’ consideration of this case and its advice to the Scottish Government. Following the engagement work, HES undertook an appraisal of the available options for managing Scapa Flow’s wartime underwater heritage. This appraisal was undertaken with input from Orkney Islands Council (including Orkney Marine Services) through bilateral meetings. A meeting was also held with the Orkney Fisheries Association and Orkney Sustainable Fisheries Ltd on 20 September 2018, and a follow up drop-in session was arranged in Stromness on 31 October 2018 to enable key stakeholders to understand what the various options would involve, and to provide their views. Comments from these discussions have been incorporated into the options appraisal, leading to the identification of a preferred option – this proposal - based on what is considered most desirable and practicable in the case of Scapa Flow.

This engagement was followed by an 8-week HES consultation, which ran from 20 February -17 April 2019, the findings from which formed a consultation analysis report provided to the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government then ran a 4-week consultation from 30 October – 27 November 2019 but due to the impacts of COVID-19, work to progress the proposal was paused until 2024. Once restarted, work included contacting all previous respondents to the 2019 consultation, including Orkney Islands Council and the representative of the owner of four of the scheduled wrecks, with whom meetings were held in March and October 2024, respectively.

In addition to engaging with all previous respondents to the 2019 consultation, contact was made with a further 11 additional individuals and organisations who had not previously responded but had the potential to be interested. All were provided with links to the previous consultation documents and invited to provide views and comments, and advise of any changes to previous responses.

Internal SG engagement/ engagement with wider Public Sector

Internal SG engagement

Officials have engaged with relevant policy areas across the Scottish Government e.g. fisheries policy colleagues.

UK/Devolved Administrations

Officials engaged with representatives from the Ministry of Defence, Salvage and Marine Operations team, to establish shared knowledge and understanding of the proposals.

Wider Public Sector

Orkney Islands Council were a key stakeholder in the development of the proposal, consultations and further stakeholder engagement in 2024.

International

Not required.

Business/Third Sector engagement

Fisheries, ports and heritage sectors, as well as dive boat operators were engaged with as part of the development of the proposal, consultations and further stakeholder engagement in 2024.

Public consultation

All parties with an interest in the proposal to designate the Historic MPA were invited to comment during an 8-week HES consultation which ran from 20 February to 17 April 2019. The consultation was run as a Survey Monkey questionnaire and as a dual-site exercise, factoring in the proposal for the Queen of Sweden wreck to also be designated as a Historic MPA. HES received 48 responses to the questionnaire of which 19 respondents indicated their intention to respond only to the Scapa Flow proposal and 21 who indicated their intention to comment on both proposals.

Support was indicated by 78% of respondents ‘agreeing’ or ‘highly agreeing‘ to the proposal, with 22% ‘disagreeing’ or ‘strongly disagreeing’, including an objection from an owner of four of the German wrecks currently designated as scheduled monuments.

Following this consultation exercise, HES continued discussions on the proposal with Orkney Islands Council, the Orkney Fisheries Association and the agent of the owner of four scheduled wrecks of the German High Seas Fleet (Markgraf; Kronprinz Wilhelm; K ö nig; Karlsruhe). The proposal documentation was updated to reflect comments received through these processes.

Owing to the non-statutory basis of the HES consultation, the findings from this engagement activity formed a consultation analysis report which was presented as advice to the Scottish Government and can be accessed here: Consultation Report: Historic Marine Protected Areas | HES | History.

The Scottish Government then ran a 4-week consultation from 30 October – 27 November 2019. This was also run as a dual-site exercise that included the Queen of Sweden wreck proposal and received a total of 16 responses, of which 14 specifically answered the question, “Do you support the designation of Scapa Flow as a Historic MPA?” Nine responses were in support of the proposal, one indicated ‘no objection’, three did not express a view, two did not provide a response and one answered ‘no.’

The Scottish Government has published its analysis of and response to the consultation which can be accessed here: Consultation response report.

Due to the impacts of COVID-19, work to progress the proposal was paused.

In 2024, the Scottish Government restarted work on the proposals and engaged with all previous respondents to the 2019 consultation as well as 11 additional individuals and organisations who had not previously responded but had the potential to be interested. All were provided with links to the previous consultation documents and invited to provide views and comments, and advise of any changes to previous responses.

The 2024 engagement activity provided assurance that respondents’ previous views had not changed. Engagement with the 11 individuals/organisations who had not previously responded to the consultation elicited supportive views and comments from those who responded.

Other stakeholders

Relevant stakeholder engagement is covered by the sections above.