Producing a set of criteria to be used to determine whether measures can be considered ecologically viable strategic compensation

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is seeking to procure a Contractor to provide a set of criteria which will be used by the Collaboration of Offshore Wind Strategic Compensation (COWSC) programme to determine whether measures can be considered ecologically viable strategic compensation.

As the number of offshore wind farms increase, it is likely that it will become progressively more difficult to identify and deliver suitable compensatory measures on a project-by-project basis and/or within individual site envelopes. To address this problem, the Government intends for developers to deliver Strategic Compensatory Measures across projects and organisations. This could include measures delivered by a group of developers or measures that can only be delivered by Government (e.g., enhanced management of existing Marine Protected Areas or the designation of new Marine Protected Areas).

The Government intends to create a Library of Measures that will be available to developers when completing their consent applications to help them identify ecologically viable strategic compensation measures.