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• Openness in decision making

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Openness in decision making

We are an executive non-departmental public body that aims to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development of the marine area through a combination of regulation and other marine management activities, such as marine planning and licensing.

We are committed to promoting and actively developing highest levels of openness and transparency in our decision making and will take all necessary steps to ensure that these principles are implemented.

The UK Government has issued us with guidance in the form of a set of principles which we must demonstrate it has taken account of in its decision making:

1. ecosystems approach
2. good regulation
3. evidence-based decision making
4. facilitating information and data sharing
5. use of sound science
6. building expertise
7. participative working.

We will ensure that all decision making is in line with the statutory requirements that it must meet with regard to relevant legislation, such as the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, Common Fisheries Policy, EIA Directive and Habitats Directive.

We have a statutory objective to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development. The overarching objective behind sustainable development is to safeguard our natural resources and economy for future generations.

Within this, there will be instances where specific legislation places more emphasis on, for example, environmental principles rather than social or economic. These instances are most often when activities are proposed in an area that has been designated as being of national or international nature conservation importance, and government policy has set out that in such instances, environmental principles will normally be uppermost.

Examples of this include decisions made under the Marine Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2007 (as amended) and the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010.

The five principles of better regulation as set out by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills state that any regulation should be transparent, accountable, proportionate, consistent and targeted. All decisions that the MMO makes must be in line with these principles as well as our corporate objective set down in the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development.

How will we be open and transparent in marine licensing?

We will undertake to publish the evidence base behind any major licensing decision in such a way as to demonstrate alignment with these principles, subject to the Data Protection Act 1998 and other restrictions.

This will include all relevant reports (or links to them), all relevant correspondence, and a summary of the MMO evidence underpinning any decision. This summary will be in the form of a template (to ensure consistency) that consists of the following headings:

• Legislative and policy context will set out details of the legislative and policy context within which the issue has been raised and the associated decision making process.
• Evidence submitted with regard to the application or licensed activity will provide a summary of all evidence submitted to the MMO that has relevance to the decision-making process.
• Summary of consultation with our scientific advisors, statutory and non statutory consultees and representations received from other bodies and individuals will provide a summary of advice, opinions and representations that have contributed to the decision-making process.
• Environmental factors will provide a summary of key environmental factors, and any potential environmental costs and benefits associated with the decision.
• Social factors will provide a summary of key social factors, and any potential social costs and benefits associated with the decision.
• Economic factors will provide a summary of key economic factors, and any potential economic costs and benefits associated with the decision.
• View from the MMO Chief Scientific Advisor (CSA) to the Board (if required) will provide a view from the MMO CSA on the validity of the evidence used to support the MMO decision or recommendation.
• View from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) are the MMO’s primary science advisors, and this section will provide their opinion on the validity of the evidence used to support the MMO decision or recommendation.

We will take a risk-based approach to regulation. Guidelines are being put in place that will set out the framework within which the significance of licensing applications to us are assessed. This will take into account the potential impact of the project, both positive and negative, on environmental, social and economic issues.

In this way, a project that is of relatively low cost, but of potentially high environmental impact, will be classed as a major project. Similarly a project that is of high economic impact, either in terms of capital cost or benefits, but has relatively few environmental issues will also be classed as a major project.