About Us

We want the MMO to be a professional and proactive marine manager, trusted by all stakeholders.

Initially, the MMO will benefit considerably from building on the expertise of the Marine and Fisheries Agency, which is a successful Defra Agency currently delivering the marine licensing and fisheries management functions that the MMO take over responsible for. However, the MMO will also have new responsibilities and become a delivery body for the whole of Government. It will therefore need to equip itself for its new and distinctive role.

The MMO's Board will determine the overall capability and structures that have to be put in place so that the MMO can do its job. It is therefore not possible to be prescriptive about precisely how the MMO will go about this process, but I can set out what has been planned to enable that to happen and to anticipate the skills and expertise the MMO will need to have available.

To facilitate preparations for the MMO, the Chair-designate has been recruited and Board will be in place ahead of vesting. The MMO will therefore operate for a short time as a 'skeleton body'. We expect that they will work with an implementation team and the MFA to ensure that staff with the right skills are available from 'day 1'. Following Royal Assent we anticipate that MFA will start to recruit staff with specialist skills relating to the MMO's new functions so that they can prepare for its launch and following its launch the MMO will continue to develop further.

The MMO will need to have a strong and competent science base to support its work as regulator, marine manager and marine planner. It will also need to make the best use of data and will therefore need appropriate expertise in that, as well as the statistical expertise to assess data related to its fisheries work and to ensure that its use of data in other areas follows sound statistical practices.

As a body charged with contributing to sustainable development, it will need to be able to assess the possible effects of potential actions according to all 3 pillars of sustainability. It will therefore need environmental, economic and social science expertise to inform its planning and regulation work and the advice it gives to government.

The MMO's work on marine plans is likely to be undertaken by teams with a range of skills representative of all of the MMO's functions. This is also likely to call on input from individuals with expertise in social, economic and legal aspects, together with experience gained in other areas such as town and country planning.

The MMO will also need to work effectively with other organisations both formally and informally. For example, the MMO will have a formal relationship with the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) where the MMO has a formal role in providing advice on marine planning.

We want the MMO to be an authoritative marine manager, regulator and source of advice to government based on expertise it progressively gains through its work in delivering a range of marine management functions and this is something that will also develop and deepen in time.

For further information please click the relevant links below and download the Marine and Coastal Access Bill.

www.mfa.gov.uk

www.mfa.gov.uk/about/marinebill.htm

www.defra.gov.uk/marine/legislation/index.htm

For details on the MMO including a brochure:

www.mfa.gov.uk/mmo/index.htm

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