Marine Legislation

We carry out a number of statutory monitoring programmes under European Commission (EC) Directives, the OSPAR Convention and national legislation. Information from these are used to manage the marine environment while ensuring best use of funds in the organisation of monitoring programmes.

The UK is a Member State of the European Union and therefore obliged to implement all the requirements of environmental Directives. The Directives are the primary instruments driving the requirement to monitor the estuarine and coastal waters environment. EC Directives are transposed into local legislation by local Regulations.

The UK is a signatory to the OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic (1998). Under this international agreement, the UK has to meet the requirements of the OSPAR Joint Assessment and Monitoring Programme (JAMP). Further information can be found in the International/ National Agreements section of our website.

In addition to these international requirements, the Department of Environment has a duty to promote conservation and cleanliness of water resources under the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999. The Order repeals and re-enacts the earlier Water Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 and includes amendments of the earlier legislation.

The Department carries out a licensing process for articles that are deposited in the sea under the Food and Environment Protection Act (FEPA) 1985, Part II. The purpose of this licensing procedure is to protect the marine environment, human health and to minimise nuisance or interference to other legitimate uses of the sea.