Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 26
26
Accepted
Fragmented responsibilities and siloed decision-making continue to undermine coherent marine management.
Conclusion
Fragmented responsibilities and siloed decision-making continue to undermine coherent marine management. Confusion over the North Sea Future Plan and conflicting policy signals experienced by fishers demonstrate that existing coordination structures are not delivering consistent cross-government direction. Although mechanisms such as 31 the MSPri Board exist, they do not provide the strategic, ministerial level leadership required to align marine, fisheries, conservation and energy priorities across government. (Conclusion, Paragraph 55)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government acknowledges the committee's concern but states that existing structures such as Marine Plans, National Policy Statements, the MSPri programme, and TCE’s Marine Delivery Routemap already provide the functions of a Sea Use Framework.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted
The Government understands the Committee’s call for a Sea Use Framework. However, we believe the structures to fulfil the role of a Sea Use Framework are already in place. These include: a. Marine plans, which are statutory plans produced by the MMO to guide the use and development of the English marine area. They ensure that the right activities happen in the right place, at the right time, and in the right way. b. National Policy Statements, which compliment marine plans and provide the primary policy framework for decision-making on Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, such as offshore wind. They guide the MMO and the Secretary of State in the examination and determination of applications, such as offshore wind developments. c. The Marine Spatial Prioritisation programme, which provides policy direction on sea use. d. TCE’s Marine Delivery Routemap which dynamically models and maps potential use scenarios for the seabed to help with planning and deliver policy. It also reflects wider key marine policies such as the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan and marine plans. The above factors mean we think a Sea Use Framework is effectively already in place.
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