Abstract
This document has been produced to inform the Habitat Regulations Assessment (HRA) process for the Hornsea Project Three Offshore Wind Farm (hereafter referred to as Hornsea Three). It provides information to enable the screening of Hornsea Three with respect to its potential to have a likely significant effect (LSE) on European sites of nature conservation importance. This step in the process and associated reporting requirements are further described in the following sections.
In this context, European sites are defined as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), Sites of Community Importance (SCIs) and Candidate SACs (cSACs) designated under the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs) designated under Council Directive (2009/147/EC) on the conservation of wild birds (the ‘Birds Directive’). In addition to sites designated under European nature conservation legislation, UK Government policy (ODPM Circular 06/2005) states that internationally important wetlands designated under the Ramsar Convention 1971 (Ramsar sites and potential Ramsar sites) are afforded the same protection as SPAs and SACs, for the purpose of considering development proposals that may affect them (and so are considered in this report as “European sites”).