Contact Arrangements with Statutory conservation agencies for oil pollution incidents

(September 2009)

Four organisations deal with nature conservation issues in Great Britain: Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Natural England, Scottish Natural Heritage and Countryside Council for Wales. The Environment and Heritage Service is the equivalent organisation in Northern Ireland, although the Northern Ireland Environment Agency deal with pollution incidents in their waters. The Harbours Division of the Department of Transport manages spills in Manx waters. The contact arrangements in case of oil spills or other major pollution incidents in UK waters for these organisations are as follows:

Organisation	Contact	Telephone -day	24 hour telephone	Fax	24 hour Pager
Natural England	Duty officer Steve Benn	01539 792840	pager number	01539 792830	07659 124846
Countryside Council for Wales	Duty officer	01352 706629 0845 1306229(swbd)	pager number	01248 385511	07659 140040
Scottish Natural Heritage	John Baxter	01313 16260	07693 865114	0131 446 2405	07699 761509
Northern Ireland Environment Agency	Duty officer		0800 807060
Isle of Man	Director of Harbors		01624 686627	01624 626403 (Captain Michael Brew)

For offshore international waters and all other waters or if any other contacts are unavailable contact:

Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Marine Pollution Advisor
JNCC Dunnet House
7 Thistle Place
Aberdeen, AB10 1UZ

Office Hours: Tel: 01224 655716

24 Hour Pager: 07623 976568
(including if unavailable during office hours)

Fax: 01224 621488

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Defining national boundaries

The following defines the sea boundaries between the country agency responsibilities:

North Sea coastline

Territorial waters above 55º50'N to be covered by Scottish Natural Heritage.

Western coastline

Territorial waters above 54º30'N to be covered by Scottish Natural Heritage

Territorial waters between 54º30'N and the Dee Estuary to be covered by English Nature

Territorial waters within 12 NM of Wales to be covered by Countryside Council for Wales

Territorial waters south of 51º20'N to be covered by English Nature

The Isle of Man's Department of Transport is responsible for all operations within Manx territorial waters i.e. 12 miles offshore or the median line.

In practice, if an incident occurs at or near these demarcation lines (say within 20 nautical miles) or in the Solway, Dee or Severn Estuaries, the relevant officers from both organisations should be alerted.

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Reporting oil spills using above contact list

Fax ALL spills - To relevant number(s)

Telephone or page - If spill exceeds 1 tonne In blocks wholly or partly within 25 nautical miles of the coast or in environmentally sensitive areas

Telephone or page - If spill exceeds 25 tonne in any other area

If you are unsure if the spill is in an "environmentally sensitive areas", please assume that it is.

If you have any queries arising from the points contained in this note, please do not hesitate to contact any of us.

Senior Offshore Advisor
JNCC
Dunnet House
7 Thistle Place
ABERDEEN
AB10 1UZ

On behalf of the statutory nature conservation agencies, EHS and the Isle of Man Director of Harbours

Oil Spill Contingency Planning, monitoring and assessment and oiled wildlife response information

Please refer to the JNCC contingency planning webpage for details of the oil spill contingency planning tool Coastal And Marine Resource Atlas (CAMRA), information about the oiled wildlife response organisation Sealarm Foundation and sources of information relating to oiled wildlife response to pollution incidents.

The Premiam project is currently developing guidelines for marine monitoring and assessment of oil and chemical spills.