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Surveillance and Monitoring
49. Article 11 of the Habitats Directive requires surveillance of the conservation status of those species described under Article 2 of the Habitats Directive. SNH currently perform a number of surveillance activities under their general statutory functions, as outlined in Part I of the Natural Heritage (Scotland) Act 1991, and the related Environmental Protection Act 1990 sections 132 and 133. However, to ensure that the obligations of the Directive are explicitly assigned, a specific statutory duty to undertake surveillance of conservation status has been added to the draft regulations, at regulation 5.
50. There is a further specific requirement on the Scottish Ministers, where measures are taken under Art. 14(2) of the Directive, to carry out surveillance of Annex V species to ensure the maintenance of favourable conservation status of the species concerned. It is proposed that this duty could be refined so that it will only cover those Annex V species for which the United Kingdom is within their natural range and your views on this are welcomed.
51. UK legislation does not include an express statutory duty to monitor the incidental capture or killing of EPS animals. It had previously been considered that this was unnecessary in order to transpose Article 12(4) of the Habitats Directive in view of regulation 3 of the Habitats Regulations. However, in Case C-6/04, the ECJ reached a different view and so to provide for greater legal clarity, regulation 9 inserts a new regulation 41A into the Habitats Regulations. This imposes a statutory duty on Scottish Ministers to establish this monitoring system.
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