Report into the establishment of marine protected areas in UK waters under existing legislation

The purpose of this report is to put into plain English the legal issues, which underlie the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs). Though there are numerous legal vehicles for regulating marine activities, the creation of closures for purely wildlife conservation purposes is a relatively novel concept. This novelty means that established regulatory bodies have to operate and take into consideration concepts concerning marine conservation, which were not in the past central to their brief. This raises the questions over a regulatory body’s ability to act and how it should react to the plethora of new legislation in this area. This report delineates the most appropriate bodies to develop MPAs and assesses whether have the powers to do so. It cannot claim to present an exhaustive list because of the numbers of regulatory bodies with marine powers. This report has attempted to identify those bodies with the most appropriate powers over marine activities