Open Government Licence (OGL)

Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are designated under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 or the UK Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. They have to be managed in a way that furthers the conservation objectives. The EU Habitats Directive requires Special Areas of Conservation (and Special Protection Areas) to be managed in a way that prevents deterioration of the qualifying features.  This layer contains proposed boundaries and measures which are subject to Marine Conservation Orders (MCOs), the Inshore Fishing (Scotland) Act 1984 or the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and is subject to change.

This dataset was created by the Scottish Government and represents passenger and vehicle ferry services in Scotland. These are the routes for the start and end terminals in the Scottish Ferry Ports dataset. It was initially created for use within the development of the Scottish Government's Urban Rural Classification. Both subsidised and private routes are included, as well as the seasonality of the route and whether it can take vehicle or foot passengers only. Ferry routes and attributes are based upon route information obtained from operator websites (e.g. Caledonian MacBrayne, NorthLink Ferries, etc.).

The 'Marine Plan Areas' are 10 sub-areas of the 'English inshore and offshore marine planning regions'. The marine plan authority (the Secretary of State in England) is responsible for preparing marine plans for these 10 plan areas with responsibility for plan development delegated to The Marine Management Organisation. 

Local government in Scotland comprises 32 unitary local authorities, which are responsible for the provision of a range of public services such as education, licensing regulations, social care, transport and waste management. The current authority boundaries are largely a result of reorganization that took place in 1996, following the enactment of the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 which abolished the two tier structure of regions and districts. The Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland is responsible for recommendations on the definition of local authority boundaries, however, the definitive dataset is delineated by Ordnance Survey for inclusion in their BoundaryLine product.