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Offshore SAC Consultation Archive

Regulation 8(4) of the Offshore Marine Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 2007 (as amended) requires JNCC to compile a report that describes the representations made about the proposals to include offshore sites on the list of areas eligible for selection as Sites of Community Importance under Council Directive 92/43/EEC ('the Habitats Directive'). The reports produced from previous consultations are available.

March - May 2012

JNCC conducted a formal consultation on five offshore SACs from March - May 2012. These sites were submitted to the European Commission on the 31st October 2012. These sites were:

Report to Scottish Ministers on the 2012 consultation concerning the selection of five possible Scottish offshore Special Areas of Conservation (PDF 744KB)

Revised Impact Assessments for the five SACs submitted to Europe on 31 October 2012 (zip 18 MB)

Earlier version of the consultation Impact Assessments for the five SACs submitted to Europe on 31 October 2012 (zip 6.7MB)

June - September 2011

JNCC conducted a formal consultation on three offshore SACs from June - September 2011. These sites were submitted to the European Commission on the 30th August 2012. These sites were:

Report to the Secretary of State of the 2011 consultation on the selection of three UK offshore Special Areas of Conservation (PDF 605 KB)

Revised Impact Assessments for the three SACs submitted to Europe on 30 August 2012 (zip 12.2 MB)

Earlier version of the consultation Impact Assessments for the three SACs submitted to Europe on 30 August 2012 (zip 7.7 MB)

August - November 2010

JNCC conducted a formal consultation on the Dogger Bank SAC from August-November 2010. JNCC have issued Frequently Asked Questions which outline the next steps for the Dogger Bank candidate SAC (cSAC).

Dogger Bank cSAC

Report of the 2010 formal consultation on Dogger Bank

Revised Impact Assessments following consultation for Dogger Bank

Earlier version of the consultation Impact Assessments for Dogger Bank

November 2009 - February 2010

Natural England, JNCC and the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) conducted a joint formal consultation on 10 marine Special Areas of Conservation and 2 Special Protection Areas in English, Welsh and offshore waters around the UK between November 2009 and February 2010. Two of the SACs were fully in offshore waters and two were joint inshore/offshore sites. One of the SPAs was a joint inshore/offshore site. These sites were:

Inner Dowsing, Race Bank and North Ridge cSAC (joint inshore and offshore site);
Haisborough, Hammond and Winterton cSAC (joint inshore and offshore site);
Bassurelle Sandbank cSAC;
North-West Rockall Bank cSAC;
Outer Thames SPA (joint inshore and offshore site).

Joint report of the 2009-10 formal consultation on 12 Natura sites

Revised Impact Assessments following consultation for the offshore sites*

Earlier versions of the consultation Impact Assessments for the offshore sites*

*Please note, these two files are large and may take several minutes to download. If you are having difficulty downloading the documents please contact us.

December 2007 - March 2008

From December 2007 - March 2008 JNCC held a consultation on the first seven offshore SACs. Five of these sites were submitted to the European Commission on 31st August 2008 and are now candidate SACs. The other two sites, North Norfolk Sandbanks and Saturn Reef and Wyville Thomson Ridge, were submitted to the European Commission on 20th August 2010 after issues that arose during the consultation had been resolved. These are also now candidate SACs. The seven sites consulted upon were:

Report of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee to the Secretary of State on the Responses to JNCC's Consultation on the First Seven Offshore Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) (834 KB)

Revised Impact Assessments for the five SACs submitted to Europe on 31st August 2008 (705 KB)

Revised Impact Assessments for the two SACs submitted to Europe on 20th August 2010 (2,097 KB)

If you have any queries on the offshore SAC consultation process not covered by the material on our website, then please contact us.