Marine Bill Biodiversity Proposals: Cost Impacts

ABPmer has recently completed a study for Defra that sought to estimate the costs to key business sectors arising from Marine Bill biodiversity proposals.

As part of the Marine Bill, Defra is intending to introduce statutory provisions for the identification, designation and management of Marine Conservation Zones (MCZ) to protect nationally important marine habitats and species. These MCZ will form part of a network of Marine Protected Areas to deliver UK commitments to OSPAR and the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

ABPmer in association with Risk & Policy Analysts and Jan Brooke were commissioned by Defra in July 2007 to develop cost estimates for key business sectors likely to be affected by the proposals and to prepare the information in a format suitable for incorporation within a Regulatory Impact Assessment. The final report was submitted to Defra on time at the end of October and has now been published on Defra's website:

http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Document.aspx? Document=WC0602_6734_FRP.pdf

Project Director Dr Stephen Hull said:

"This project entailed significant technical challenges in developing a methodology that could be applied to cost estimation across a range of sectors. It also required us to work closely with a wide range of marine sectors- oil & gas, offshore wind developers, wave and tidal device developers, marine aggregates, cables and fisheries -  both in developing the assumptions underlying the assessment and in commenting on draft outputs. This interaction was greatly assisted by our ongoing close association with many of these industries and we are very grateful for the support that industry associations and individual stakeholders provided, particularly given the extremely tight time scales for the work".