Marine (Scotland) Act 2010

The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 is an act of the Scottish Parliament which provides a framework which will help balance competing demands on Scotland's seas. It introduces a duty to protect and enhance the marine environment and includes measures to help boost economic investment and growth in areas such as marine energy.

The main measures include:

• Marine planning: a new statutory marine planning system to sustainably manage the increasing, and often conflicting, demands on our seas
• Marine licensing: a simpler licensing system, minimising the number of licences required for development in the marine environment to cut bureaucracy and encourage economic investment
• Marine conservation: improved marine nature and historic conservation with new powers to protect and manage areas of importance for marine wildlife, habitats and historic monuments
• conservation: much improved protection for seals and a new comprehensive licence system to ensure appropriate management when necessary
• Enforcement: a range of enhanced powers of marine conservation and licensing

Wildlife organisations, such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, welcomed the new laws.

• RSPB Scotland: Marine Environment Inquiry / Written evidence to the Environment and Rural Development Committee of the UK Government, December 2006

• Scottish Adjacent Waters Boundaries Order 1999
• Marine Directorate, the Scottish Government's marine management directorate
• List of acts of the Scottish Parliament from 2010
• Marine protected area (MPA)
• Conservation biology
• Fisheries management, fish farms
• Marine conservation
• World Commission on Protected Areas
• Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, covering England and Wales

• Marine and Fisheries pages Scottish Government website