Closed consultation

Marine Protected Area assessments: draft updates to policy

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

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Summary

Seeking feedback on draft updated policies for Marine Protected Area (MPA) assessments to inform updates to guidance.

This consultation was held on another website.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is consulting on draft updated policies for MPA assessments to inform updates to guidance. The updates to policies are based on feedback from our consultation on draft guidance for compensatory measures in MPAs.

We are seeking views on the draft definitions and principles in the consultation to help improve the effectiveness of the final guidance.

We are particularly keen to hear from marine industries affected by the consenting and planning process on:

  • how applicable and feasible these updated policies are
  • whether you think this would reduce delays to the consenting process

We have developed these updates for:

  • regulatory bodies
  • statutory nature conservation bodies
  • other public authorities whose functions may affect MPAs
  • marine developers

The final guidance will help these groups consider how to avoid, reduce, mitigate and, where necessary, compensate for impacts on the marine environment within MPAs. These proposed updates aim to provide further clarification to help reduce delays to the consenting process.

Updates to this page

Published 9 February 2024
Last updated 21 March 2024 + show all updates
  1. Consultation closing date extended to 1 April.

  2. First published.

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