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

Footnotes

1 Marine Scotland and ABPMER, 2013, The Scottish Marine Protected Area Project – developing the evidence base for impact assessments and the sustainability appraisal; final report.

2 Scapa Flow, German High Seas Fleet scheduled monuments: wrecks of four cruisers and three battleships

3 UK Marine Policy Statement

4 Historic Environment Policy for Scotland

5 HES designation policy and selection guidance

6 Based on figures provided by the agent of the owner in June 2019, the current scrap value of the four wrecks is estimated at circa £10 million. This is on the basis that what remains of the four wrecks contains approximately 60,000 tonnes of scrap metal at £150 per tonne, with an additional allowance for non-ferrous metals including gun steel and armour plate. It does not include the cost of breaking-up and recovery of the wrecks. The agent also claims that there may also be an estimated £500k of collectible goods within the four wrecks. This is based on an understanding that the wrecks contain collectable items such as diving equipment, valued at approximately £20k per set with circa 10 sets on each of the battleships, along with crockery, cutlery and other tools and loose equipment of a collectable nature. The figure of £500k includes provision for costs to recover these materials from the wrecks. The owner claims a ‘loss of opportunity’ of the Bayern Turrets, which amounts to £180k. This figure is based on a scrap value of £765k less an estimate of costs for breaking-up and recovery. Updating the above 2019 prices to 2025 prices using GDP deflators (HMT Mar 2025) and GDP deflator forecasts (OBR Mar 2025) yields a scrap value of £12.7 million, £635,000 in collectible items and £229,000 ‘loss of opportunity’ of the Bayern turrets. In 2024, the agent of the owner provided what they consider to be a conservative estimate of what the scrap metal from the battleship Konig may be worth, as approx. £17 million.

7 Churchill Barriers tidal project

8 Cruising the Islands of Orkney - a Guide

9 HMT, Mar 2025. GDP deflators at market prices, and money GDP March 2025 (Spring Statement & Quarterly National Accounts). Includes forecasted GDP deflator for 2025.

10 OIC Report into: Orkney Volume Tourism Management Study. – The Orkney News

11 DCMS, 2020. DCMS Rapid Evidence Assessment: Culture and Heritage Valuation Studies - Technical Report

12 Households in Scotland by housing tenure: Scottish Household Survey, 2023 - gov.scot

13 CMA guidance