The Conservation of Offshore Marine Habitats and Species Regulations 2017

[F1 Duty to designate special areas of conservation U.K.

7.— (1) The relevant administration must designate as special areas of conservation such sites in the offshore marine area it considers to be sites of national importance.

(2) Sites of national importance are sites which contribute significantly to the objective in paragraph (3)(a) or the objective in paragraph (3)(b).

(3) The objectives referred to in paragraph (2) are—

(a) the maintenance, or restoration, at favourable conservation status in their natural range, of the natural habitat types listed in Annex I to the Habitats Directive or the species listed in Annex II to that Directive; and

(b) the maintenance of biological diversity within the Atlantic biogeographic region.

(4) For aquatic species which range over wide areas, such sites are to be determined to be of national importance only where there is a clearly identifiable area which is distinct in providing the physical and biological factors essential to their life and reproduction.

(5) in determining which sites are of national importance for the purposes of paragraph (1), the relevant administration must—

(a) apply the Annex III criteria;

(b) make its determination only on the basis of relevant scientific information; and

(c) have regard to the importance of the population of a species or area of a habitat, found in the United Kingdom’s territory, in ensuring that the objectives in paragraph (3) are met .

(6) For the purposes of paragraph (5)(a), the Annex III criteria are to be construed as if—

(a) for “Community importance” there were substituted “national importance”;

(b) a reference to a “Member State” is to be taken to be a reference to the relevant administration;

(c) for “continuous ecosystem situated on both sides of one or more internal Community frontiers” there were substituted “continuous ecosystem extending beyond the borders of the United Kingdom; and

(d) for “the biogeographical regions concerned and/or for the whole of the territory referred to in Article 2” there were substituted “the Atlantic biogeographical region””.

(7) The relevant authority must have regard to the advice of the Joint Committee in relation to the application of Annex III to the Habitats Directive.

(8) In relation to a site in the Welsh offshore region which before these Regulations come into force has been the subject of a proposal under regulation 8(1) of the Offshore Marine (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 2007, the relevant administration for the purposes of paragraph (1) is the Secretary of State.

(9) In this regulation, “the Annex III criteria” means the criteria set out in Annex III to the Habitats Directive]

Textual Amendments

F1 Reg. 7 substituted (31.12.2020) by The Conservation of Habitats and Species (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/579), regs. 1, 35; 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)