Two consultations are currently underway aimed at modernising legislation relating to the Isle of Man’s territorial sea.
The first consultation is seeking views on the principles of secondary Regulations to support the Marine Infrastructure Management Act 2016 on behalf of the Department of Infrastructure.
This Act provides a consenting process for certain controlled marine activities to take place, including offshore renewable energy generation, laying submarine cables and submarine pipelines, and exploration for and exploitation of natural gas and petroleum.
The aim of the Regulations is to provide more detail around pre-application requirements, scoping opinions, fees and the submission and examination of applications.
The consultation is designed to support work taking place with assistance from legal and industry advisors to finalise the Regulations ahead of submission to Tynwald at this year’s July sitting.
The focus of the second consultation is on wind farms and submarine cables, and the application of the UK Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 using a provision within the Climate Change Act 2021. This is being undertaken on behalf of the Council of Ministers.
As part of the pre-application requirements to be undertaken by Ørsted in preparation of its offshore windfarm application, the company needs to seek a request for a Scoping Opinion for their Environmental Impact Assessment from the Department of Infrastructure. The proposed regulations will enable this to proceed while work continues on finalising the regulations under the Marine Infrastructure Management Act 2016.
The consultation documents are available to view on the Government website and may also be downloaded electronically from consult.gov.im.
Alternatively, written comments can be emailed to Ian.Brooks@gov.im or by post to Ian Brooks, Central Support and Change Division, Department of Infrastructure, Sea Terminal Building, Douglas, IM1 2RF.
Both consultations opened on Monday 8 January and will run for six weeks, closing on Friday 16 February 2024.
