Marine Infrastructure Post Consent Regulations 2026 Consultation

It is the Department’s intention that where appropriate the overarching principles set out below are applied to preparation of the Regulations:

• Overarching Principle 1 – Align as closely as possible to existing UK legislation for similar projects
   
• Overarching Principle 2 – Use similar provisions and principles to those already enacted in the MIMA Consenting Regulations

The rationale is that the UK legislation is well established, and well understood for these projects which will be consented for under MIMA. The Marine Infrastructure (Consenting Process) Regulations 2024 ('MIMA Consenting Process Regulations') and provisions are already enacted, they have been prepared based on both industry and legal advice, and were informed by a public consultation.

In addition, an applicant and relevant stakeholders will be familiar with these as part of the original Marine Infrastructure Consent being granted and as such, there is an understanding of the process rather than introducing a different mechanism for these post consent applications.

The Department will continue to review this approach as part of the preparation of these Regulations. At this stage, it is likely that what will be included from both the UK and MIMA Consenting Process Regulations will relate to the manner by which notices and statements etc will be published, the identification of stakeholders for the process, the way in which the application will be examined and determined (including the appointment of Independent Examiners, the types of meetings they will hold etc as well as the preparation of their report with recommendation being provided to Council for its decision).