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Marine Dredging Regulations Procedures
13. Under the Scottish Government's proposals, any non-exempted dredging activity which involves the removal of minerals from marine waters in harbour areas will be covered by the regulatory procedures in the MDRs. For the purposes of the MDRs, marine waters means "tidal waters and parts of the sea from the mean high watermark of ordinary spring tides" that are within the Scottish share of the 200 miles British fishery limits".
14. The EIA Directive includes all developments which involve the extraction of minerals by marine or fluvial dredging by the extractive industry as an Annex II project. It is these activities that the MDRs are primarily intended to regulate. It is accepted that other, perhaps minor, mineral extraction will take place. Regulation 6 of the MDRs enables the Scottish Ministers to determine that minor dredging activity is neither an EIA nor Habitats project and, in such instances, only those provisions in the MDRs relating to including information in a Register shall apply. For example, prospecting and bulk sampling are unlikely to have significant effects on the environment if these operations remove no more than 5,000 tonnes of material. However, an EIA may be required where the proposed sampling operation may impact on a European site or could affect other sensitive areas such as designated shell fisheries or marine archaeological sites. The Scottish Ministers will consider each proposal on its merits.
15. In most other circumstances, an application for permission to dredge must be made to the Scottish Ministers. If an Environmental Statement is required, prospective applicants may request a scoping opinion from the Scottish Ministers on what it should cover. Any subsequent application, which should be accompanied by a fee of £29,500, will be processed following procedures similar to those for planning applications, including consultation with stakeholders, such as Scottish Natural Heritage, and the public.
16. The Scottish Ministers would then consider the application taking account of comments made, the findings of the EIA and, if a European site is concerned, the appropriate assessment. Disagreement between parties on whether consent should be granted can be referred to a Reporter to consider before the Scottish Ministers issue their final decision. If dredging permission is granted, it will be subject to conditions aimed at minimising impacts on the environment. These conditions will, in nearly all cases, require appropriate monitoring to take place.
17. All dredging permissions will be personal to the owner of the seabed who, with the prior approval of the Scottish Ministers can transfer a dredging permission, either in whole or in part, to another party, usually a dredging operator.
18. The MDRs also include procedures for the review, variation and suspension of permissions.
19. Minerals dredging without permission or failure to comply with the conditions attached to dredging permissions are offences with a penalty of the statutory maximum in summary proceedings or an unlimited fine on indictment.
Q3 Can existing procedures in the 2007 MDRs be applied effectively to mineral dredging in harbour areas?
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