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Review of the implementation in England
of the Habitats and Wild Birds Directives
Nature Directors 23 May 2012
Robin Mortimer, Defra
The Habitats and Wild Birds Directives in
England
• In Britain, protections from the Habitats Directive cover 9
plants, 12 individual animal species, + all species of bats,
dolphins, porpoises, whales and 5 species of marine turtle
• Currently 251 Special Areas of Conservation under the
Habitats Directive and 84 Special Protection Areas under
the Birds Directive in England.
• In England, protected sites under the Habitats and Wild
Birds Directives cover about 6% of land and nearly 23% of
English inshore waters. By the end of 2012 over 7% of UK
offshore waters will be protected sites.
• Responsibility for implementing the Directives largely
devolved to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland.
The Review
(November 2011 – March 2012)
• Considered implementation in England
• Focused on the legislative obligations for authorising development
proposals, with a view to:
• reducing the burdens on businesses . . .
•
. . . .while maintaining and where possible enhancing
environmental benefits.
• Aimed to understand what is working well, and where implementation
could be improved in a cost-effective way
• Sought out good practice from other EU Member States, and significant
engagement of environment and business groups
The Review’s Key Findings
•
In large majority of cases the implementation works well, allowing
both development of key infrastructure and the protection of
Natura 2000 sites and species.
• In some cases, often well publicised, costs and delays can occur for
developers. These arise for a variety of reasons:
o Guidance is complex: not all in one place, and operates at different
levels; can reinforce perception of inconsistency and lack of
transparency.
o Authorisation processes for development can be complex, with
responsibilities sometimes falling across many bodies
o Data availability can be poor, especially in the marine environment,
which can lead to highly precautionary decision making
o Culture and capacity of those involved: scope to strengthen
customer-focussed collaborative working and improve professional
standards
The measures announced in the Review’s
Report
To address these concerns, a series of measures were announced in the
Report covering 4 themes:
1. Facilitating Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects
2. Improving Implementation Processes and Streamlining Guidance
3. Improving the Quantity, Quality and Sharing of Data
4. Improving the Customer Experience
1. Measures to facilitate Nationally
Significant Infrastructure Projects
• New Major Infrastructure and Environment Unit (MIEU) based in
Defra, to identify and support resolution of Habitats Directive issues at
pre-application stage
• Clarify the role of competent authorities when several are involved in
a single development
• Consult on, and publish, new guidance on the use of the ‘Imperative
Reasons of Overriding Public Interest’ (IROPI) test for major projects.
• New evidence process for relevant key infrastructure projects
introduced from September 2012.
2. Measures to improve implementation
processes and streamlining guidance
• Consult on and publish (by March 2013) a new customer focussed
overarching guidance manual to provide clear advice on key legal
terms in the Directive.
• Undertake, by March 2013, a comprehensive stock take of
existing guidance.
• Create a single easily accessible web-based portal for all guidance,
by August 2012.
3) Measures to improve the Quantity,
Quality and Sharing of Data
• Establish a Marine Evidence Group to address marine data sharing
issues, evidence gaps and ways of improving post construction
monitoring.
• Consult on new consistent standards on the acceptable range and
quality of evidence needed to enable statutory bodies to provide their
advice.
• Facilitate, by December 2012, agreement by all involved on a practical
plan to share environmental data more widely, while recognising the
need to respect commercial sensitivities
• Statutory nature conservation bodies to publish a new approach to
increasing the information on the conservation objectives of
protected sites
• Work closely with environmental NGOs and others to improve
existing surveillance of protected species and pilot new approaches
4. Measures to improve the customer
experience
• Defra to promote a culture of co-operation, transparency,
openness and customer focus in its delivery bodies, via corporate
plans and Key Performance Indicators
• Government encourages statutory bodies, competent authorities and
business to establish staff interchange arrangements
• Stakeholder roundtable in autumn 2012 to discuss progress
towards establishing a customer-focussed culture
The link to ecosystems
An Ecosystems Approach
Government will invite the newly established Natural Capital Committee to
give early consideration as it develops its work programme to the following
issues:
o How an Ecosystems Approach can help evaluate any specific choices
over mitigation or (ecological) compensation
o Extent to which an Ecosystems Approach could help to identify suitable
measures to help deliver Favourable Conservation Status; and
o The wider role an Ecosystem Approach can play in helping to make
strategic choices about mitigation/compensation where a number of
projects are impacting on the same area.
Would be interested to hear more about
 In your implementation of the Directives, have you encountered any
similar issues?
 What steps have you taken to improve your implementation of the
Directives that we could learn from?
 How should we approach this in the review of national
implementation in 2013?