Scotland’s National Marine Plan: A Single Framework for Managing Our Seas.

The Scotland’s National Marine Plan: A Single Framework for Managing Our Seas (The Plan) covers both Scottish inshore waters (out to 12 nautical miles) and offshore waters (12 to 200 nautical miles). It also applies to the exercise of both reserved and devolved functions.
Plan's vision for marine environment is a clean, healthy, safe, productive and diverse seas managed to meet the long term needs of nature and people. This vision is underpinned by a series of strategic objectives which are set out in Annex B and apply to both inshore and offshore waters. These strategic objectives seek to integrate the ecosystem approach and the guiding principles of sustainable development to deliver a robust approach to managing human impact on Scotland’s seas.
The Plan under Chapter 4 stipulates a core set of General Policies which apply across all existing and future development and use of the marine environment. These General Policies are intended to represent the characteristics against which the sustainability of development and use is considered. They are presented under the five guiding principles of sustainable development to represent the balance required between social, economic and environmental imperatives. The General Policies apply to all plan making and decision making in the marine environment. These policies provide an overarching framework for all activity and more detailed policies in the sector chapters should be read as subject to the General Policies.
Under Chapter 6-16 Sectoral policies have been developed where issues beyond those set out in the General Policies require to be addressed in order to ensure sustainability of the activity. Sectoral policies include: sea Fisheries; Aquaculture; Wild Salmon and Diadromous Fish; Oil and Gas; Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS); Offshore Wind and Marine Renewable Energy; Recreation and Tourism; Shipping, Ports, Harbours and Ferries; Submarine Cables; Defence; Aggregates.