Photo by Barna Bozsanyi
The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has responded to a Northern Ireland government consultation on how compensation for harm to the marine environment from offshore wind farms should be managed. The watchdog welcomes the intention of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) to tackle the nature and climate crises by keeping existing environmental protections while improving compensatory measures for offshore wind. However, it identifies several areas that need further consideration.
Helen Venn, the OEP’s Chief Regulatory Officer, said the reforms had real potential. “Compensation reforms and the use of the Marine Recovery Fund (MRF) across Northern Ireland’s waters could simultaneously enable the development of clean energy, while protecting and restoring the marine environment,” she said. “While we continue to support in principle the concept of strategic compensatory measures and delivery through the MRF, there are risks to the environment and the potential challenges to Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that we think should be addressed.”
What the OEP welcomes
The OEP supports keeping the mitigation hierarchy as the starting point for all plans and projects. This is a step-by-step framework for avoiding, reducing and then compensating for harm to biodiversity. In its formal response, it recommends writing these safeguards into the Statutory Rule that emerges from the consultation. It also welcomes a Public Compensation Register, and a requirement that compensatory measures be evidence-based, additional to normal management practice and typically in place and effective before damage to a protected site begins.
Network coherence and additionality
The OEP’s central concern is the coherence of Northern Ireland’s MPA network, which its own assessment has found is “not yet ecologically coherent.” It warns that removing the requirement for network coherence, and allowing compensation for different features across protected sites, could lead to “piecemeal reshaping of the MPA network.” It asks DAERA to set out how compensation will support a coherent, well-managed network in line with domestic and international commitments.
On additionality, the OEP agrees that compensatory measures should go beyond normal site management, but wants that principle clearly defined in guidance. Northern Ireland departments are already legally obliged to manage MPAs towards favourable status. The OEP therefore seeks clarification that the reforms will not allow industry to fund measures that departments must deliver anyway. Without such safeguards, it warns, the approach “could inadvertently disincentivise departmental action and pass obligations onto developers.”
Alignment across shared waters
The response welcomes the ambition for UK-wide alignment of compensatory measures. It argues that reforms must be coherent across UK seas, reflecting the shared legal duty to achieve good environmental status under the Marine Strategy Regulations 2010. Given how ecologically connected the waters around the island of Ireland are, it also suggests that engaging with relevant departments in the Republic of Ireland could be valuable.
The OEP also urges DAERA to develop and promptly publish guidance on the detail of the scheme. Much of that detail has yet to be set out, including the compensation hierarchy, evidence expectations, adaptive management and how the MRF will operate. It adds that the guidance should be consistent with Defra’s statutory guidance for the offshore region.
Environmental principles duty
The OEP notes that the consultation does not refer to the Environmental Principles Policy Statement (EPPS), which came into force in Northern Ireland on 2 September 2026. Because the consultation closes after that date, DAERA must have due regard to the statement when developing the reforms. The OEP says transparency about how the duty is shaping the reforms would support wider scrutiny and accountability.
The response also draws on the OEP’s first annual assessment of Northern Ireland’s Environmental Improvement Plan, published in June 2026. That assessment found the Executive was only partially on track to meet its marine habitat and species targets. The OEP adds that delivery of the Offshore Renewable Energy Action Plan has been limited. Many of the points echo those it raised in previous responses to Defra’s proposals in England, on offshore wind compensation and the Marine Recovery Fund.