Regulation of fish and shellfish farm deposits: associated impact assessments

Fairer Scotland Duty (FSD)

Assessment not required declaration

Title of policy, strategy or programme

Proposals to identify the Scottish Environment Protection Agency as the responsible authority for the regulation of fish farm environmental discharges between 3-12 nautical miles and amendments to exemptions to requirements for marine licences for fish and shellfish farms

Directorate: Marine Directorate

Division: Marine Economy and Communities

Team: Aquaculture Development and Regulatory Review

Policy lead responsible for taking the decision: Joe Triscott

Rationale for decision

There is now growing interest within the aquaculture sector to develop farms beyond 3 nautical miles from the coast, with developments in technology making farms in this region feasible.

The Scottish Government is committed to clarifying the consenting process for aquaculture between 3-12 nautical miles, with the intention to ensure a consistent approach to the regulation and consenting of aquaculture development and activity across the 0-12 nautical mile zone.

Scottish Ministers recently introduced the Town and Country Planning (Marine Fish Farming) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2025 to ensure consistency in approach to aquaculture planning regulations across the 0-12 nautical mile zone, by identifying relevant local planning authorities as the responsible body for assessing and determining fish and shellfish farm planning applications out to 12 nautical miles.

By extension, these proposals are being brought forward to ensure fish farm developments between 3-12 nautical miles are appropriately assessed, licenced and regulated in respect to environmental discharges, in a consistent manner with how that activity is regulated between 0-3 nautical miles. These environmental discharges include organic waste, medicinal residues and sea lice .

Under the current framework, responsibility for the regulation of fish farm environmental discharges differs between 0-3 nautical miles and 3-12 nautical miles.

Between 0-3 nautical miles, responsibility lies with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). SEPA currently regulates this area under The Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 from November 2025 SEPAs regulatory powers, out to 3 nautical miles will come from the new framework provided in The Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018 (“EASR”) when amendments by the The Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025 come into force.

Between 3–12 nautical miles the regulation of fish farm environmental discharges currently falls under the marine licensing regime, administered by Marine Directorate - Licensing Operations Team (MD-LOT) on behalf of Scottish Ministers, as set out under The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010.

Recognising SEPAs expertise in regards to assessment, licensing and regulation of fish farm environmental discharges, and stakeholders familiarity with SEPA’s licensing and regulatory processes, it is proposed that SEPA be identified as the responsible authority to regulate this activity between 3-12 nautical miles. This would create a single lead authority for fish farm environmental discharges across the 0-12 nautical mile zone.

In addition, amendments to existing ‘exempted activities’ are proposed to clarify the application of exemptions currently in place in respect to the deposit of substances and equipment from fish and shellfish farms, for the purposes of reducing regulatory duplication.

The outlined amendments do not seek to reduce or alter regulatory standards. The amendments only seeks to;

• amend the responsible body for regulating environmental discharges for fish farms in the 3 – 12 nautical mile zone to bring consistency with regulation in the 0-3 nautical mile zone, and;
• to reduce regulatory duplication and clarify the application of existing exemptions to the need for a marine licence in relation to fish and shellfish farming.

It is considered that these proposals do not represent a new strategic direction but is an administrative exercise, consent for environmental discharge to the environment by aquaculture businesses will still be required.

The provisions of the proposal should not have any direct implications for inequalities arising from socio-economic disadvantage. As such a Fairer Scotland Duty Assessment is not required.

Sign off

I confirm that the decision not to carry out a Fairer Scotland assessment has been authorised by:

Name and job title of Deputy Director (or equivalent): Malcolm Pentland – Deputy Director, Marine Economy and Communities

Date authorisation given: 28 August 2025