Regulatory background
The Crown Estate (CE) owns most of the seabed out to the 12 mile territorial limit and has rights to all non-energy minerals within the rest of UK share of the European Continental Shelf.
There are many other owners of the close-inshore seabed, including local authorities, harbour authorities and some private owners. It licences marine minerals dredging on a commercial basis but only up until 30 April 2007 if the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government first issued a favourable Government View (GV) on the environmental acceptability of each new dredging proposal.
As "landowner", CE strictly controls all aspects of marine minerals dredging. By competitive commercial tender, it issues Prospecting Licenses to enable dredging companies to search for aggregates in specified locations and Production Licenses to enable companies to dredge them with the payment of royalties which are paid to the CE per tonne extracted.
Government view
The GV procedures are an informal non regulatory system that has worked with the willing co-operation of industry and which takes on board the provisions of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive by administrative means. Although the GV procedures do not say so, they have also since 1994 taken on board the requirements of the Habitats Directive. The GV procedures deal only with the processing and determination of new GV applications.
Early favourable GV letters, therefore, tended to be a series of comments on applications and until April 2005 could contain conditions requiring the operator to seek approval from other parties on various environmental issues. Over time favourable GV letters gradually changed and, since 1989, reflect the requirements of the EIA Directive by explaining the measures taken to consult the public and the reasons for the decisions.
From April 2005 the schedule of conditions that accompanied every favourable GV decision was considerably tightened up insofar as all the conditions were more precise and required all reserved matters and compliance with conditions to be approved by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.
This was done in anticipation of the, then, proposed marine minerals dredging regulations which established a statutory regulatory system where all marine minerals dredging matters need the approval of the MFA on behalf of the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and its administration from DCLG to the MFA.
Most GVs have a 15 year duration so the MFA will continue to deal with reserved matters, monitoring, compliance with conditions up until 2022 unless they get drawn into the new statutory regulations because a proposed variation comprises either a "relevant" or a "habitats" project or because some process of retrospection is introduced in the Marine Bill.
Marine minerals regulations
On 1 May 2007 The Environmental Impact Assessment and Natural Habitats (Extraction of Minerals by Marine Dredging) (England and Northern Ireland) Regulations 2007 and their procedural guidance, Marine Minerals Guidance Note 2: The Control of Marine Minerals Dredging from the British Seabed came into force.
It put the consideration of marine minerals dredging applications on a statutory footing for the first time. Also responsibility for marine minerals dredging transferred to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
They provide a statutory basis for the control of the extraction of minerals by dredging in British marine waters.
They also transpose into UK law the requirements of the European Community Directives on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment (the EIA Directives); also, on the conservation of natural habitats, and of wild fauna and flora (the Habitats Directive) with respect to the extraction of minerals by marine dredging.
Scotland and Wales have introduced equivalent Regulations.
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