The UK Marine Bill

Our Seas - A shared Resource

Consultation on the High Level Objectives for the Marine Bill

The UK government has produced a draft Marine Bill.  This potentially ground-breaking piece of legislation will underpin the changes required if we are to manage our maritime resources in a sustainable manner.  The UK has been leading EU Maritime policy development and the Marine Bill has been developed in advance of EU policy, but is validated in its content by the new EU policies themselves.  This is confirmation that the UK approach to marine management (in theory) will ensure the equitable and sustainable use of our coasts and seas, with ecosystems in their optimal states at their heart.

The Marine Bill was initially drafted in 2006, with a period of consultation.  The main themes for this draft Bill were informed by UK Biodiversity policy and directives.

The responses from this initial consultation informed the more detailed development of the Draft Marine Bill A Sea Change – the Marine Bill White Paper

Whose consultation period ran until June 2007.  A Summary of Responses to this White Paper can be found here

The Devon Maritime Forum has compiled its own summary of the draft Marine Bill as an attempt to distill out the key points of the new legislation.  It is intended as a quick reference document only and readers are directed towards the original legislative document if they wish to scrutinise the detailed workding of the document itself.

Defra is looking to receive substantial comments on the detail of the legislation before the 26th June, in order to accurately re-draft the legislation to take account of these.  The Devon Maritime Forum responded to the initial consultation and these responeses can be found here.

Other Marine Bill documents:

Fact sheet - environment
Fact sheet - individuals
Fact sheet - industry

Protecting the marine environment
Valuing marine nature conservation