In June 2008, we responded to HMG’s consultation on the Marine Bill, essentially a piece of domestic legislation. We called for the UK’s responsibility for the UKOTs under international conventions to be taken into account, and for Territory-based bodies to be given access to UK technical support structures for marine management proposed under the Bill.

In February 2009, we responded to HMG’s consultation on the World Heritage Convention, noting (amongst other things) the problems associated with prospective UKOT World Heritage Sites being advanced through the UK’s ‘Tentative List’ (where they are essentially treated as being in the UK), and the apparent ineligibility of UKOTs for Heritage Lottery funding.

In 2011, we responded to UK Government’s consultation paper by DEFRA on nature policy in England. We pointed out that DEFRA’s responsibilities relate not just to issues in England but also internationally. The document had ignored this element and, in particular, made no mention of UK Overseas Territories. In our submission, we noted that most of the globally important biodiversity for which UK is responsible is in the UKOTs. We were pleased that the Government took this into account in the resulting White Paper The Natural Choice: securing the value of nature, published in June 2011.

Furthermore, the UKOTs form part of Defra’s 25-year plan which was launched in January 2018. A summary of key points relating to the UKOTs is found in Forum News 48.

We have responded to the consultation on proposed new policy directions for the Big Lottery Fund (BLF) in 2011 but, alas, no changes were made.

We have provided information to the UK Government in their reporting to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Ramsar Convention.