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 is used to manage the marine environment while ensuring the best use of funds for monitoring programmes.

The UK is a member of the European Union(EU) and obliged to implement all the requirements of environmental directives as a result.  Directives are put into national legislation by local regulations.

The UK has signed up 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 to 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.