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Marine (Scotland) Act 2010

Marine Plans

Section 5 - National marine plan and regional marine plans

9.Section 5 requires the Scottish Ministers to prepare and adopt a national marine plan for Scotland’s marine area and allows them to prepare and adopt regional marine plans for Scottish marine regions. The marine plans will state the Scottish Ministers’ policies for sustainable development of the area to which the plan applies and the Scottish Ministers’ policies on the contribution of the marine protected areas and other conservation sites to the network of protected sites. The plans must be prepared and adopted in terms of schedule 1.

10.In preparation for a national marine plan (or regional plan) Scottish Ministers must set economic, social and marine ecosystem objectives, along with objectives relating to the mitigation of, and adaption to, climate change. Scottish Ministers must also prepare an assessment of the condition of the Scottish marine area (or region) at the time of preparing the plan and a summary of the significant pressures and human impacts on the relevant area. A national or regional marine plan may include statements or information relating to policies contained within the plan.

11.Section 5(5) enables the Scottish Ministers to create Scottish marine regions through secondary legislation and to identify the boundaries of the regions.

Section 6 - Conformity of marine plans with other documents

12.The national and regional marine plans must conform to any marine policy statement currently in effect for the Scottish marine area, unless relevant considerations indicate otherwise. The regional marine plans must also conform with the national marine plan, unless relevant considerations indicate otherwise. The section also makes provision as to what is meant by a marine policy statement being in effect.

Section 7 - Coming into effect of marine plans

13.Section 7 indicates that the national marine plan or a regional marine plan only comes into effect once it is published in accordance with schedule 1. Once it comes into effect, a marine plan affects decisions of public authorities as set out in section 15.

Section 8 - Amendment of marine plans

14.Section 8 allows a marine plan to be amended when necessary by the Scottish Ministers. Any amendment to a marine plan must be prepared and adopted in exactly the same way as the original marine plan. The amended marine plan comes into effect once it has been adopted and published.

Section 9 - Withdrawal of marine plans

15.Section 9 allows the Scottish Ministers to withdraw a marine plan where they consider it appropriate to do so. It may be that there is a problem with the plan that they do not want to, or cannot, rectify by making an amendment such as if they decide that the plan must cease effect immediately. In those circumstances they could just withdraw the plan. They must publish a notice in the Edinburgh Gazette and the marine plan will cease to have effect from the date of publication. The Scottish Ministers must bring the withdrawal to the attention of interested persons. Once a national marine plan has been withdrawn, the Scottish Ministers must, as soon as possible, prepare and adopt a new national marine plan for the Scottish marine area.

Section 10 – Effect of withdrawal from or of marine policy statement or of national marine plan

16.If the Scottish Ministers withdraw from a marine policy statement, or a marine policy statement is withdrawn, then the validity or effect of a national marine plan or regional marine plan is unaffected. The construction of any national or regional marine plan is unaffected in the period between a marine policy statement being withdrawn and a new statement coming into effect. The withdrawal of a national marine plan by Scottish Ministers does not affect the validity of a regional marine plan, nor the construction of any regional marine plan until a new national marine plan is in effect.

Section 11 - Duty to keep relevant matters under review

17.Section 11 requires the Scottish Ministers to keep up to date with issues so as to ensure that there is effective marine planning. The non-exhaustive list of matters which need to be reviewed is in section 11(2). This includes the physical, environmental, social, cultural and economic characteristics of the marine area and of the living resources which the area supports. “Cultural” characteristics include those which are of a historic or archaeological nature.

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Explanatory Notes

Text created by the Scottish Government to explain what the Act sets out to achieve and to make the Act accessible to readers who are not legally qualified. Explanatory Notes were introduced in 1999 and accompany all Acts of the Scottish Parliament except those which result from Budget Bills.

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