Historic Marine Protected Areas - designation proposals: consultation report

Background

The Scottish Government's vision for the marine environment is for clean, healthy, safe, productive and diverse seas; managed to meet the long term needs of nature and people.

In 2019, the Scottish Government sought views on proposals to create two Historic Marine Protected Areas as part of the Scottish Marine Protected Area (MPA) network: the Queen of Sweden wreck near Lerwick and at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. The consultation ran from 30 October to 27 November 2019 and followed an earlier consultation on the proposals by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) which had informed their advice and recommendation to the Scottish Government to designate both sites.

Due to the consequential impacts of COVID-19, work to progress the proposals was not further advanced at the time.

The consultation asked the following questions:

1. Do you support the designation of the Queen of Sweden as a Historic Marine Protected Area?

2. Do you support the designation of Scapa Flow as a Historic Marine Protected Area?

3. Do you have any comments on the draft Designation Orders?

4. Do you have any comments on the advice and consultation report from Historic Environment Scotland?

The consultation was undertaken at Citizen Space - Proposal to designate two Historic Marine Protected Areas.

This page on Citizen Space hosted the consultation document and other supporting information relevant to the questions posed. These included draft designation orders and supporting evidence provided by Historic Environment Scotland.

This document provides a summary of responses, addresses issues related to each question, and a conclusion. There are two appendices which provide a summary description of the sites:

• Appendix A – Queen of Sweden
• Appendix B – Scapa Flow

Stakeholder Engagement Summary: 2024

In 2024, the Scottish Government recommenced 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 may wish to do so. 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.