Publication - Impact assessment

Proposed Fisheries Management Measures within Scottish Inshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and proposed Priority Marine Feature (PMF) Management Areas - Partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA)

Published: 14 September 2026
From: Director of Marine
Directorate: Marine Directorate
Topic: Environment and climate change, Marine and fisheries
ISBN: 9781806432875

This assessment is undertaken to estimate the costs, benefits and risks of proposed fisheries management measures for Marine Protected Areas and proposed Priority Marine Feature management areas within Scotland's inshore waters that may affect the public, private or third sectors.

Supporting documents

Footnotes

1 NRS Web Continuity Service

2 Final Report - The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review - GOV.UK

3 World Economic Forum (2025) Global Risks Report 2025, Institute of Actuaries (2025) Planetary Solvency – finding our balance with nature, and Green Finance Institute (2023) Assessing the Materiality of Nature-Related Financial Risks for the UK.

4 Footnotes - Partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment - Amendment of the West of Scotland Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area (NCMPA) site boundary - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

5 Marine Protected Areas a review of their use for delivering marine biodiversity benefits - ENRR688

6 Frontiers | Rewilding of Protected Areas Enhances Resilience of Marine Ecosystems to Extreme Climatic Events

7 Scottish Government (2015) National Marine Plan.

8 Improving protection given to Priority Marine Features : Response to Scoping Consultation

9 Ecosystem-based approach | The European Maritime Spatial Planning Platform

10 MMO (2023) UK Sea Fisheries Statistics 2022. (Accessed 17/02/2025).

11 UK/EU and EAEC: Trade and Cooperation Agreement [TS No.8/2021] - GOV.UK

12 Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics 2022 - gov.scot

13 Scottish Government (2020). Monitoring the Socio-Economic Impacts of marine Protected Areas: 2019 Report. Agriculture, Environment and Marine. (Accessed 23/02/2025).

14 Scottish Government (2020). Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy (Accessed 21/02/2025).

15 Scottish Government (2025). Draft Updated Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy. Socio-economic Impact Assessment. May 2025 (Accessed 20/06/2025).

16 See supplementary data at: Tourism values for Natural Capital Accounts - NR0176 (accessed 27/06/2025)

17 Studies include Marine Conservation Society (2023) A socio-economic analysis of a bottom-contact fishing ban in the UK, The Nature Conservancy (2023) Sea Change: Costs and Benefits of Marine Protected Areas, European Commission (2017) Study on the Economic Benefits of Marine Protected Areas, and Costello (2024) Evidence of economic benefits from marine protected areas.

18 This relates to the scale of impacts assessed within the SEIA (no noticeable effect, minimal negative effect, possible negative effect and significant negative effect). Further detail on site- and area-specific impacts is provided in Appendices E to Q of the SEIA.

19 Nemo: Inshore-VMS England. (accessed 24/02/2025).

20 Succorfish UK iVMS package (accessed 24/02/2025).

21 Marine Directorate (2023). Improving inshore fisheries data: Consultation on requiring electronic tracking and monitoring technology on under 12 metre commercial fishing vessels. (accessed 24/02/2025).

22 Scottish Government (2024). Fisheries Management Measures within Scottish Offshore Marine Protected Areas. Socio-Economic Impact Assessment – Final. (Accessed 25/02/2025).

23 Marine Directorate (2020). Monitoring the Socio-economic Impacts of Marine Protected Areas: 2019 Report. Agriculture, Environment and Marine. (accessed 23/02/2025).

24 Rees et al. (2021). Optimal fishing effort benefits fisheries and conservation. Scientific Reports 11: 3784. (accessed 27/06/2025)

25 Ecosystem-based approach | The European Maritime Spatial Planning Platform (europa.eu)