Marine Environment

Wednesday 29th January 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Hardy)]

Making Britain a clean energy superpower is one of this Government’s five missions. This is critical to our country—to cut bills; to create jobs; to deliver energy security, with cheaper, zero-carbon electricity by 2030; and to meet our net zero target.

This Government have taken immediate action by setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned company to invest in clean, home-grown energy. We have also already committed to the biggest investment in clean energy in British history.

Offshore wind will play a pivotal role in our achieving clean power by 2030 and accelerating to net zero by 2050—our recently published clean power action plan sets a capacity range for between 43 GW and 50 GW by 2030. The UK is already a world leader in offshore wind technology, and the Great British Energy partnership with the Crown Estate will bring forward new offshore wind developments, with the potential to deliver up to 20 GW to 30 GW of extra offshore wind seabed leases to the market by 2030.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is playing a crucial role in supporting the growth of offshore wind, to help de-risk and accelerate planning decisions for offshore wind while protecting and enhancing the marine environment. The nature and climate change crises are of equal importance, and we must address them together.

To do this, we will implement an offshore wind environmental improvement package. Work is well advanced, and recent and upcoming milestones include:

underlining our commitment to use the powers conferred in the Energy Act 2023 to ensure that compensatory measures for unavoidable environmental impacts to marine protected areas (MPAs) can be delivered strategically rather than on a project-by-project basis, including through a library of measures that DEFRA is developing in collaboration with stakeholders;

publication of an updated joint position statement on unexploded ordinance that sets out that low noise clearance should be the default in the marine environment. This has also been published alongside a marine noise policy paper highlighting the further actions we are taking to reduce noise in our seas;

consulting on an offshore wind piling noise limit in the first half of 2025, followed by a pilot programme in 2025 and 2026, to reduce the risk of project delays because of the need to limit the amount of underwater noise generated;

consulting in spring 2025 on reforms to the environmental compensation requirements for offshore wind projects, with the aim to bring in legislation by autumn 2025. This will aim to increase the number of measures available to developers to offset the adverse impacts of offshore wind developments, while retaining a robust process that ensures that damage to our precious marine environment remains compensated for; and

the launch of a marine recovery fund in late 2025 to provide an optional mechanism for developers to fund delivery of strategic compensatory measures.

We are already delivering on the clean power action plan. Today I am announcing an action that my Department will take to help accelerate and de-risk the consent of offshore wind projects while continuing to protect the marine environment.

Multiple offshore wind projects are at risk because there are currently no ecologically effective options that developers can deliver themselves to compensate for their unavoidable impacts on seabed habitats within special areas of conservation and marine conservation zones. Without suitable measures, these projects cannot be delivered. DEFRA commits to designating new MPAs and/or extending existing MPAs in Secretary of State waters to deliver sufficient strategic compensation to compensate for likely environmental effects of offshore wind development. We do not expect this to be available to any project outside the following:

Projects that received a seabed lease from the Crown Estate under leasing round 3, round 4 or the 2017 extensions round;

Projects in the current leasing round 5 in the Celtic sea;

Associated transmission infrastructure projects—for example, those forming part of the holistic network design. We will be working with devolved Governments on how this relates to projects in their waters where cabling will come through English waters; and

Projects that have already been granted consent but are unable to discharge their consent conditions, or where adaptive management may now be required as the agreed compensation measures have not had the impact expected when consent was granted.

We are also aware that offshore wind projects might sometimes be required to compensate for essential maintenance activities carried out once the wind farm is operational and/or for unforeseen impacts. For this reason, we will aim to deliver additional environmental compensation so that projects eligible to request MPA designation to support project consent—those listed above, in paragraph 7—as well as operational projects delivered in leasing round 2, can access this measure if available and deemed suitable.

In all cases, MPA designations will be delivered by DEFRA. Those designations and associated management will be funded by the offshore wind developers that successfully apply to use this measure through the marine recovery fund.

We anticipate that the total area of new and/or extended MPAs required to compensate for the predicted impacts of offshore wind projects will be small in comparison to the tranches of MPAs previously designated in Secretary of State waters. We will be looking to protect a range of benthic habitats.

Working closely with our statutory nature conservation bodies, potential areas will be identified based on ecological principles. We will be following the established legislative processes for designation and will keep stakeholders, including the fishing industry, regularly informed, as well as providing opportunities for them to share any concerns as regards the proposed sites, so that the views and impacts on affected industries and communities are fully understood.

To avoid the risk that new MPAs designated for compensation might later be leased for energy or other projects that cause damage, we will also be working with the Crown Estate, the Marine Management Organisation and others to explore ways in which we might deliver additional long-term protection from future impacts that will require compensation.

Designating new MPAs and putting management measures in place to protect them will take time. Although work has already begun on this, we are aware that the timelines of some projects mean that they will still be delayed if they are required to wait for MPA designations and associated management to be functioning. Where this is the case, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Marine Management Organisation may consider circumstances in which the adverse effect can occur before compensation is in place. However, this would need to be considered against other factors. Where this is permitted, a greater amount of environmental compensation is likely to be needed to make up for the time delay and developers will be required to pay into the marine recovery fund before any adverse effect can occur. DEFRA will also be producing high-level implementation and monitoring plans in advance of final MPA designations to assist developers in providing the necessary information at this stage, with final updated plans being provided once designation has taken place.

We recognise that accelerating development of marine activities, and environmental protection and restoration measures such as the designation of new MPAs, is increasing marine spatial tensions. Though not caused by their actions, these competing priorities and demands for space present a challenge for the fishing industry, particularly as it is unlikely that it will be possible to avoid causing an impact on fishing activities in all cases. Fishing is an incredibly important part not just of the UK’s food system, but of our cultural identity as a country—so much so that we will not let these impacts on the industry go unaddressed. That is why DEFRA established, and continues to lead, the cross-Government marine spatial prioritisation programme, working with the Marine Management Organisation, to address this spatial squeeze and ensure that the industry’s interests are represented. The Government will ensure that the sector is supported to adapt to increased pressure on space. We will work with the industry to maintain its viability into the future and ensure that it continues to make a significant contribution to coastal communities. The Government are committed to finding ways for different industries to co-exist and benefit from our marine space. We will also work with the Crown Estate and other relevant stakeholders to see how they can help in this process. Food security is national security, and a sustainable fishing industry is an important part of that.

Alongside designating MPAs for benthic compensation, we will be undertaking a wider review of the MPA network and we will be keeping delivery of the MPA target under review, with the aim of future-proofing the network, for example in terms of climate change adaptation and mitigation, while allowing us to still meet our international commitment to effectively protect 30% of our seas by 2030. A wider network review will also look to provide higher certainty for the fishing industry on the future MPA network.

My announcement today demonstrates this Government’s dual commitment to enabling offshore wind and protecting our precious marine environment, while supporting our fishing industry. The fragile state of our natural environment means that we cannot afford to press ahead without considering the impact on nature—we need to address both the climate and biodiversity crises together.

Our action will help unlock the capacity needed to meet this Government’s ambitious but achievable target of clean power by 2030, building a home-grown energy system that takes back control and can bring down bills for households and businesses for good.

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