Habitats Regulation Assessment Welsh National Marine Plan November 2019 © Crown copyright 2019 WG39253 Digital ISBN 978-1-83933-413-9 Welsh Government Welsh National Marine Plan Habitats Regulations Assessment Habitats Regulations Assessment Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions UK Limited – August 2019 2 © Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions UK Limited Report for Copyright and non-disclosure notice Welsh Government The contents and layout of this report are subject to copyright Cathays Park owned by Wood (© Wood Environment & Infrastructure Cardiff Solutions UK Limited 2019) save to the extent that copyright CF10 3NQ has been legally assigned by us to another party or is used by Wood under licence. To the extent that we own the copyright in this report, it may not be copied or used without our prior written agreement for any purpose other than the purpose Main contributors indicated in this report. The methodology (if any) contained in Mike Frost this report is provided to you in confidence and must not be disclosed or copied to third parties without the prior written agreement of Wood. Disclosure of that information may constitute an actionable breach of confidence or may Issued by otherwise prejudice our commercial interests. Any third party who obtains access to this report by any means will, in any event, be subject to the Third Party Disclaimer set out below. ................................................................................. Mike Frost Third party disclaimer Any disclosure of this report to a third party is subject to this disclaimer. The report was prepared by Wood at the instruction Approved by of, and for use by, our client named on the front of the report. It does not in any way constitute advice to any third party who is able to access it by any means. Wood excludes to the fullest extent lawfully permitted all liability whatsoever for any loss or ................................................................................. damage howsoever arising from reliance on the contents of Peter Davis this report. We do not however exclude our liability (if any) for personal injury or death resulting from our negligence, for fraud or any other matter in relation to which we cannot legally exclude liability. Wood Canon Court Abbey Lawn Management systems Abbey Foregate Shrewsbury SY2 5DE This document has been produced by Wood Environment & United Kingdom Infrastructure Solutions UK Limited in full compliance with our Tel +44 (0) 1743 342 000 management systems, which have been certified to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 by LRQA. Doc Ref. B35445rr039i4 h:\projects\35445 bri welsh marine plan hra\docs\reporting\hra Document revisions 2019\b35445rr039i4 - final hra .docx No. Details Date 1 Draft for WG review June 2019 2 Draft v2 June 2019 3 Final HRA for review July 2019 4 Final HRA of adopted WNMP August 2019 August 2019 Doc Ref. B35445rr039i4 3 © Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions UK Limited Executive summary The Welsh National Marine Plan The Welsh National Marine Plan (WNMP) has been prepared by the Welsh Government in accordance with the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 (MCAA)1. The purpose of marine planning under the MCAA is to help achieve sustainable development in the marine area. Welsh Ministers are the Marine Planning Authority under the MCAA, responsible for creating marine plans for both the inshore region (0‐12 nautical miles) and offshore region (beyond 12 nautical miles) of Wales. Plans for both regions will be presented in a single document, the WNMP. The Welsh Government initially prepared the Welsh National Marine Plan: Initial Draft2, which that was made available for comment between November 2015 and January 2016. This pre-consultation exercise and the responses received, alongside ongoing assessment and appraisal, helped to inform the preparation of the Draft Welsh National Marine Plan (Draft WNMP)3, which was published for formal public consultation over a 16-week period between 7th December 2017 and 29th March 2018. The Draft WNMP was accompanied by a Sustainability Appraisal (SA) and a report4 summarising the findings of a ‘Habitats Regulations Assessment’ (HRA), undertaken to meet the requirements of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 (the ‘Habitats Regulations’) and the Offshore Marine Regulations 2007. The Welsh Government subsequently amended the Draft WNMP, taking into account the representations received to the consultation (a summary of consultation responses is available via the Welsh Government’s website5), the findings of accompanying assessments, ongoing stakeholder engagement and further detailed work in respect of one particular aspect (tidal lagoons). The outcome of this revision process was the Revised Draft WNMP, which was the plan intended for adoption. The Revised Draft WNMP was reviewed by Welsh Government and presented for ministerial sign off as the Final WNMP (hereafter, ‘the WNMP’); this HRA relates to the WNMP as adopted. 1 HM Government (2009) Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. Available from http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2009/23/pdfs/ukpga_20090023_en.pdf [Accessed December 2016]. 2 Welsh Government (2015) Welsh National Marine Plan Initial Pre-Consultation Draft. 3 Welsh Government (2017) Draft Welsh National Marine Plan. Available from https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/consultations/2018- 02/draft-plan-en.pdf [Accessed May 2019]. 4 Welsh Government (2017) Welsh National Marine Plan - Habitats Regulations Assessment. Available from https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/consultations/2018-02/habitats-en.pdf 5 Welsh Government (2018) Draft Welsh National Marine Plan: Consultation – summary of response. Available from https://beta.gov.wales/sites/default/files/consultations/2018-07/draft-welsh-national-marine-plan-summary-of-responses.pdf [Accessed September 2018]. August 2019 Doc Ref. B35445rr039i4 4 © Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions UK Limited Habitats Regulations Assessment Regulation 63 of the ‘Habitats Regulations’ states that if a plan or project “(a) is likely to have a significant effect on a European site6 or a European offshore marine site7 (either alone or in combination with other plans or projects); and (b) is not directly connected with or necessary to the management of the site” then the plan- making authority must “…make an appropriate assessment of the implications for the site in view of that site’s conservation objectives” before the plan is given effect. The process by which Regulation 63 is met is known as Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA)8. An HRA determines whether there will be any ‘likely significant effects’ (LSE) on any European site as a result of a plan’s implementation (either on its own or ‘in combination’ with other plans or projects) and, if so, whether these effects will result in any adverse effects on the site’s integrity. Regulation 25 of Offshore Marine Regulations 2007 applies the same provisions to “…any consent, permission or other authorisation for, a plan or project which…is to be carried out on or in any part of the waters or on or in any part of the seabed or subsoil comprising the offshore marine area, or on or in relation to an offshore marine installation…”. HRA of the WNMP Regulation 63 of the Habitats Regulations essentially provides a test that the final plan must pass; there is no statutory requirement for HRA to be undertaken on draft plans or similar developmental stages. However, it is accepted best-practice for the HRAs of strategic plans or policy documents to be run as an iterative process alongside their development and this approach has been followed throughout the development of the WNMP. The broad aim of this process is to avoid as many potential adverse effects upon European sites as possible through the plan evolution. The Welsh Government has therefore engaged with key consultees on the HRA throughout the WNMP development process; this has included consultation on the Draft WNMP and its HRA (see Section 1.1), and the subsequent formation of a ‘Working Group’ to explore some specific issues arising from the Draft WNMP and HRA (principally in relation to policies associated with tidal lagoon development). This process resulted in the Revised Draft WNMP and subsequently the Final WNMP, which is this subject of this HRA report. The key components of the WNMP, from an HRA perspective, are as follows: ⚫ The Plan Objectives, which state the desired outcomes that the WNMP is seeking to achieve. ⚫ The General Cross-cutting Policies: cross-cutting policies that support the delivery of the plan objectives, and which include various protective policies; these policies have no spatial component (beyond applying to the WNMP area). ⚫ The Sector Policies: sector-specific policies that will apply to, or inform, decisions related to particular activities e.g. aggregates, dredging, fishing and aquaculture. These policies are broadly categorised as either ‘supporting policies’ (which encourage the submission of 6 Strictly, ‘European sites’ are: any Special Area of Conservation (SAC) from the point at which the European Commission and the UK Government agree the site as a ‘Site of Community Importance’ (SCI); any classified Special Protection Area (SPA); any candidate SAC (cSAC); and (exceptionally) any other site or area that the Commission believes should be considered as an SAC but which has not been identified by the UK Government. However, the term is also commonly used when referring to potential SPAs (pSPAs), to which the