Written evidence submitted by the British Marine Aggregate Producers Association

Background

1. The British Marine Aggregate Producers Association (BMAPA) is the representative trade organisation for the British marine aggregate sector and a constituent body of the wider Mineral Products Association. The Mineral Products Association is the trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, dimension stone, lime, mortar and silica sand industries. With the affiliation of British Precast, the British Association of Reinforcement (BAR), Eurobitume, QPA Northern Ireland, MPA Scotland and the British Calcium Carbonate Federation, it has a growing membership of 480 companies and is the sectoral voice for mineral products. The Mineral Products Association membership is made up of the vast majority of independent SME quarrying companies throughout the UK, as well as the 9 major international and global companies. It covers 100% of UK cement production, 90% of GB aggregates production, 95% of asphalt and over 70% of ready-mixed concrete and precast concrete production. Each year the industry supplies £20 billion worth of materials and services to the Economy and is the largest supplier to the GB construction industry, which had annual output valued at £151 billion in 2016. Industry production represents the largest materials flow in the UK economy and is also one of the largest manufacturing sectors. BMAPA represents 10 member companies of the Mineral Products Association who collectively produce around 90% of the 19 million tonnes of marine sand and gravel dredged from licensed areas in the waters around England and Wales each year.

2. Marine dredged sand and gravel is principally used by the construction industry, with the marine contribution providing 23% of overall sand and gravel demand in GB (14.27 million tonnes in 2017), 35% of total construction aggregate demand in South East England (11.61 million tonnes) and over 50% of construction aggregate demand in London (5 million tonnes). Bearing in mind that one third of all GB construction industry activity (valued at c.£50 billion in 2016) takes place in London and the South East, marine aggregate supplies play a key role in supporting the delivery of key Government policies relating to sustainable growth, housing and infrastructure.

3. The role and contribution of marine dredged sand and gravel resources as part of the wider portfolio of construction aggregate supply is growing in importance, given over 3 billion tonnes of construction aggregate will be required to support societal demand to 2030[1]. While a significant proportion of this demand will continue to be met from secondary and recycled sources of material (which currently contribute around 30% of total construction aggregate needs), where local sources of primary aggregate are constrained, either because resources are not geologically present or because existing resources have become depleted, alternative sources of supply have to be found. Through economies of scale, marine aggregate supplies play an important role in construction aggregate supply by transporting large volumes (2,000 -10,000 tonnes/cargo) over considerable distances for delivery to coastal towns and cities, close to where they are needed. Along the River Thames alone, 8.5 million tonnes of marine sand and gravel were delivered to specialized wharves during 2017 – equivalent to over 1,100 lorry loads every day.

4. Marine dredged sand and gravel also provide a strategic role in supplying large scale coast defence and beach replenishment projects – over 30 million tonnes being used for this purpose since the mid 1990’s. With the growing threats posed by sea level rise and increased storminess, the use of marine sand and gravel for coast protection purposes will become increasingly important.

5. In the near future, marine sand and gravel resources can be expected to play a key role in supporting the delivery of major infrastructure projects associated with Government policies related to energy security and the management of climate change, such as nuclear new builds, gas storage facilities, tidal power developments and port developments to support offshore wind farms. The coastal location of these projects means that the sector is ideally placed to support the sustainable supply of the large volumes of construction aggregate and fill material that will be required.

6. In all cases, the marine aggregate sector is dependent upon identifying and licensing economically viable sand and gravel deposits to secure sufficient reserves to maintain long term supply to existing and well established markets. The location of such deposits is extremely localised around the waters of England and Wales, restricted to their geological distribution and their geographical position relative to the location of the markets that are served.

7. At present (April 2017), 1071.27 km2 of seabed is licensed for marine aggregate extraction in British waters, of which c.87 km2 is dredged in a typical year. This represents around 0.12% and 0.01% of the total UK continental shelf area (867,000km2) respectively. A further 334.77 km2 of seabed is currently under application or covered by a prospecting licence. In this respect, the marine aggregate sector is responsible for managing a significant area of the UK seabed.

The impact of environmental changes and the legal framework protecting ocean biodiversity

8. The marine aggregate sector has played a proactive role in supporting the development of the UK’s Marine Protected Area (MPA) network by providing high resolution marine survey data and expert knowledge to help identify and define site features and to understand the environmental context in which they sit. The industry also continues to provide ongoing data to monitor the status of existing sites through compliance surveys, which in turn support the condition monitoring of sites – work which arguably would not otherwise happen. Notable examples include the definition of sandbank features at the Haisborough, Hammond and Winterton Special Area of Conservation (SAC), the identification of biogenic reef and sandbank features within the Inner Dowsing, Race Bank and North Ridge SAC, the identification of Black Bream spawning habitat and geological reef feature within the Kingmere Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) and the definition of geological reef feature within the Utopia MCZ. In all these cases, licensed marine aggregate interests exist either within or adjacent to designated MPA sites, with no detrimental effect to the conservation objectives that have been defined for the features they protect.

9. The development and provision of new controls to allow a network of marine protected areas of national nature conservation interest to be designated and protected was fully supported by the British marine aggregate industry during the evolution of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 (MACAA), as was the fact that the designations would have to take into account socio-economic interests. The rationale behind this position was that if marine industry knows where marine sites of nature conservation significance are located in advance, they can make more informed business decisions when planning their developments. This would enable a more proactive approach to assessing impact, significance and risk as opposed to the rather more reactive approach that has traditionally existed. That being said, until the wider marine protected area network is in place, significant uncertainties and risks remain for marine developers, in terms of their potential exposure to nature conservation issues. For this reason, the marine aggregate industry very much welcomes the forthcoming consultation of the third tranche of Marine Conservation Zones to finalise the MPA network.

10. Many protected areas (SAC/Special Protection Areas (SPA) and MCZs) have been in place for some time now and capital decisions for licensed activities within and around these designations will have been made based on the conservation objectives and associated management plans that were originally defined. There is some concern that a potential move away from traditional ‘feature-based’ protection towards a ‘whole-site’ approach for the management of existing MPAs, as referenced in the recent Defra 25 Year Environment Plan, has the potential to create uncertainty and impact developer confidence by introducing additional business risks. This is particularly the case for those activities that will already be subject to regulation, management and control through the marine licences they operate under.  The marine licensing regime provides a robust and effective evidence-led approach for the regulation and management of marine aggregate activities, taking into account the environmental significance of the impacts that will result and the means available to manage and mitigate these to acceptable levels. Given the wide range of activities that may occur in and around conservation areas, and the differing spatial scales, pressures and regulatory controls associated with each of these, it is important to avoid a simplistic ‘one size fits all’ approach towards MPA management.

11. As the number of MPA sites increases, there will be a growing requirement to monitor the status of protected features to ensure the effectiveness of the management measures that have been introduced. Given the number of designated sites and the spatial area each covers, the time, effort and cost associated with delivering this effectively must not be underestimated if the envisaged improvements in environmental quality are to be properly recorded and understood.

12. Given the inevitable pressures on resources, there are opportunities to consider more innovative approaches to deliver effective site monitoring. In the case of the marine aggregate sector, a new regional approach for compliance monitoring of marine licences has been introduced – whereby the monitoring requirements are standardised across all licence areas and then delivered at a regional scale through a single industry survey. This delivers a more robust and consistent set of data for compliance purposes, and also delivers a more cost-effective solution to primary data acquisition. The concept behind the Regional Seabed Monitoring Programme (RSMP) approach was developed by Cefas through a partnership project funded by industry, Defra, MMO, Welsh Government and The Crown Estate. Between 2014 and 2015, five regional baseline surveys wholly funded by the marine aggregate sector were completed, resulting in 3,500 new seabed sediment samples being acquired in the English Channel and Southern North Sea. At the same time, the sector has pooled its historic seabed sampling data (c.8,500 sample stations) to provide a wider dataset of seabed sediments and the benthic communities associated with these. The first follow up monitoring survey took place in the English Channel in 2017, and further surveys will be taking place in the Outer Thames and Southern North Sea later this year. This regional approach has now been extended to also include the delivery of acoustic monitoring surveys (multibeam bathymetry and side scan sonar).

13. The RSMP project has also collated seabed sediment data from a range of other sources (private and public) to create a database of over 34,000 seabed sample stations. By employing a ‘big data’ approach that looks to make the best possible use of historic survey data, monitoring surveys are able to focus on the areas that deliver the best value outcome – filling knowledge gaps or addressing areas of particularly sensitivity. While this data, and the subsequent regional monitoring surveys that will be repeated by industry every five years, are primarily to deliver the compliance requirements for marine licences, this methodology clearly has the potential to deliver other value-added outcomes in support of both the wider MPA network and determining the wider environmental status of regional seas. The marine aggregate sector intends to place much of this wider dataset in the public domain once the baseline surveys have reported, but some of the wider principles from this approach may well be equally applicable to the future strategy required to support monitoring the MPA network or indeed helping to manage the marine environment more generally.

14. In terms of the implications of Brexit for European designations, the marine aggregate sector believe that it will not be easy, quick or even desirable to try and unpack the current corpus of regulation without knowing what will supersede it. Furthermore, it is often UK interpretation and implementation that is more of a problem than the requirements of the EU Directives themselves. While the regulation and management of European designations may not be perfect, the processes and associated legal precedents that have helped to shape these are now very well defined. That contrasts to the equivalent processes and precedents that exist for MCZ designations, which largely explains why there remains so much caution and uncertainty for developers operating within or around new MCZ sites. Given the choice between having to undertake a development within a European designation or within an MCZ, we would suggest the preference would be for the European site on the basis that the precedents and processes are so well established. Consequently, we can see no value in deconstructing the existing mechanisms and processes that define the current network of European marine sites, in order to then create a new set of mechanisms and processes that essentially do the same thing – albeit with no legal precedent behind them. This would generate significant uncertainty and risk for marine developers at a stage where the finalisation of the ‘Blue Belt’ commitment should be increasing certainty.

The impact of marine industries, science and innovation, and blue finance

What national or international measures could the UK pursue to minimise the impact of marine resource extraction, such as sand mining, aggregate dredging and deep-sea mining?

15. The British marine aggregate industry is already rightly recognised as a world-leading marine development sector, which is at the cutting edge of marine environmental regulation and management. The principles and practices that have been developed over several decades to improve the way the sector’s activities are planned, assessed, managed, mitigated and monitored have attracted attention from other nations around the world, including the USA, Australia, NZ, Mexico, Namibia, South Korea and China. Underpinning these developments has been a recognition by UK regulators, statutory advisors and industry that knowledge and understanding represent the foundation on which a robust, evidence-led marine planning and management framework can be developed and then delivered. The better the state of knowledge informing the various processes, the greater the confidence in the end product, and the lower the risk to all end users – whether they be developers, regulators, policy makers or advisors. This in turn allows all parties to take proactive decisions in order to avoid or manage known sensitivities which in turn reduces risks and increases confidence in outcomes. For good reason, these principles and practices provide a model that can help support other forms of marine development taking place around the world.

16. The marine Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund (“marine ALSF”) programme, which ran from April 2002 until March 2011, represents one of the most substantial investments in UK marine research that has taken place this decade with over £20m of projects commissioned to improve the way the marine aggregate industry is planned, assessed and managed. The marine ALSF programme was delivered through a multi-disciplinary steering group, chaired by Defra, which included representatives from Government departments, agencies, advisors, the marine aggregate industry and The Crown Estate. Although a wide range of interests were represented on the steering group, a common goal for the programme was to deliver practical outcomes that improve understanding and knowledge of the environmental implications of marine aggregate extraction in order to ensure such practices are sustainable. In turn, the expectation was that outcomes should increase certainty and provide greater confidence to regulators, advisors and industry alike. The final overview report demonstrates that the marine ALSF programme delivered significant improvements to our understanding across a wide range of environmental disciplines[2]. Some of these outputs have resulted in immediate changes in the way that the marine aggregate industry is assessed and managed, while others will result in longer term benefits. The outputs from this unique programme resulted in a significant global reach.

17. The marine ALSF programme was funded through the Aggregates Levy (AGL), which was established in 2002 to generate revenue from the sales of primary aggregate (including marine) for use in construction. The AGL has been applied at a rate of £2.00 per tonne since 2009, with AGL receipts typically raising between £300m to £350m pa for HM Treasury (£407m in 2016/17), totalling £5bn since its inception. The Levy itself was introduced as a means to better reflect the environmental costs of winning primary construction aggregates, and to encourage the use of alternative, secondary and recycled construction materials. To reduce the environmental consequences of winning primary construction aggregates, up to 10% of the revenue raised by the AGL in each financial year was allocated to the Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund  (of which the marine ALSF programme represented one element) until it was withdrawn by Defra in 2011. The Mineral Products Association has recently advocated the establishment of a new Aggregate Levy Communities Fund to support delivery of Government’s ‘localism’ agenda alongside the recent 25 year plan for the environment[3].

18. The evidence-led marine licensing regime under which the marine aggregate industry operates requires companies to assess, mitigate and manage the potential effects of development to the satisfaction of the marine licensing authority (the Marine Management Organisation) and their statutory advisors (Natural England and JNCC). Crucially, the acceptability (or otherwise) of any given development will be determined by the significance of any potential effects that may result (informed by Environmental Impact Assessment and site specific evidence) given the sensitivity of the environment where the activity is taking place. The decision making process will also include consideration of any additional mitigation and management controls to further reduce the significance of any impacts that may arise. As a consequence, the marine licensing regime allows industry activities to be precisely managed at a site specific scale, rather than requiring more generic, broad-brush controls.

19. Alongside research and evidence, the marine aggregate sector has looked to build on the marine ALSF programme by proactively addressing common industry issues through the development of solutions in partnership with policy makers, regulators and statutory advisors – and thus looking to become part of the solution, rather than simply being viewed as the problem. This has resulted in the publication of a number of good practice guidance notes, several of which have been the first of their kind – such as a guidance note and reporting protocol for the marine historic environment that was developed in partnership with English Heritage (now Historic England) in 2003[4]. Other innovations included Marine Aggregate Regional Environmental Assessments (MAREA), which saw the industry cooperating to commission and undertake regional scale cumulative and in-combination assessments, and the RSMP surveys detailed under para.13/14 of this submission. This commitment to lead from the front has culminated in the sector publishing ‘Good Practice Guidance – Extraction by Dredging of Aggregates from England’s Seabed’[5] (2017), in conjunction with The Crown Estate, which with the agreement of Defra and the MMO has directly replaced previous Government guidance ‘Marine Mineral Guidance Note 1’ (2012)[6]. Recognising that guidance is as much for regulators, advisors and wider stakeholders as it is for industry, this document provides a point of reference for all the established good practice currently currently employed by the British marine aggregate sector to assess, mitigate, manage and monitor its operations.

May 2018