Weekly Intelligence Brief

A call for improvement in marine access legislation

16 November 2009

The UK Marine and Coastal Access Bill and the ongoing debate over the Scottish Parliament’s Marine (Scotland) Bill reflects the increase in pressure for development at sea. But Brodies’ Robert Seaton  has questioned the feasibility of the two bills.

Both bills provide for the creation of marine plans to guide development and decisions by public authorities on other activities at sea. But the UK bill leaves a devolution-shaped hole for the Scottish legislation, Seaton wrote in his column for scotsman.com.

Seaton highlighted that the complexity of existing law can be seen by taking the example of proposals to place a one megawatt tidal energy facility on the seabed. He pointed out that the procedure for gaining approval is quite complex considering that consents might be required with differing procedure and by different authorities. Failure to obtain one single authorisation might jeopardise the entire project.

Read more:

UK Marine and Coastal Access Bill: http://social.tidaltoday.com/search/node/UK+Marine+and+Coastal+Access+Bill