The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has made the Norfolk Boreas Offshore Wind Farm (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2025 (S.I. 2025/1362), following a non-material change application under paragraph 2 of Schedule 6 to the Planning Act 2008. Signed on 18 December 2025 and coming into force on 19 December 2025, the Order modifies the Norfolk Boreas Offshore Wind Farm Order 2021 after consultation conducted under regulations 6 and 7 of the 2011 Regulations.
The amendment enables use of the Marine Recovery Fund established under section 292 of the Energy Act 2023 as an adaptive management measure for the Haisborough, Hammond and Winterton Special Area of Conservation. It also removes the previous fixed requirement to clear at least 8.3 hectares of marine debris before cable installation within the SAC, and replaces it with strengthened monitoring, reporting and remedy procedures.
The Order inserts new definitions and structures into Part 3 of Schedule 19. It confirms the benthic implementation and monitoring plan as the delivery vehicle for compensation measures, with a benthic steering group shaping scope and delivery. Defra is defined for the purposes of agreeing any Marine Recovery Fund payment, and both Marine Recovery Fund and Marine Recovery Fund Payment are set out in statutory terms.
Where the required area of marine debris cannot be removed in full, the undertaker may apply to the Secretary of State to make a Marine Recovery Fund Payment in substitution for the unachieved portion. The application must specify the proportion attributable to Norfolk Boreas where the cable corridor impact is shared with the Norfolk Vanguard project, and quantify debris already removed under the benthic plan, net of any Norfolk Vanguard contribution.
The Secretary of State must be satisfied that the Marine Recovery Fund route is acceptable in principle and that Defra or any fund operator has confirmed the Fund can be used, including a monetary quantification of the sums due. Following any such approval, no cable installation works may proceed within the SAC until an implementation and monitoring plan is approved and the undertaker has been discharged from further obligations to deliver on-site compensation measures.
Discharge from further obligations under Part 3 can occur through approval of a completion report evidencing delivery, payment in full of the agreed Marine Recovery Fund amount with written confirmation, or entry into an instalment contract with the first payment made and written confirmation obtained. The Order clarifies that discharge via instalments does not remove the obligation to complete payments under that contract.
Monitoring is tightened. Unless otherwise agreed, the undertaker must submit results from the monitoring scheme at least annually to the Secretary of State, the Marine Management Organisation and the relevant statutory nature conservation body. Reports must identify any finding that measures have been ineffective in improving the SAC’s condition and set out proposals to address this, which must then be implemented once approved.
The omission of the sentence that had required 8.3 hectares of debris removal before works start shifts compliance to a performance and sign-off model. Either the benthic measures are completed and approved through the completion report, or the Marine Recovery Fund route is approved and the undertaker is discharged in line with paragraph 39 before cable installation in the SAC can proceed.
Article 2 is updated to define Defra and to substitute the definition of undertaker with Norfolk Boreas Limited (Company No. 03722058), subject to article 6 on the benefit of the Order. Schedule 1 receives coordinate corrections: longitude at point 29 becomes 002° 59' 17.972" E; longitude at point 67 becomes 002° 59' 02.0169" E; and at point 164 the latitude becomes 52° 50' 36.142" N and the longitude 002° 35' 08.679" E.
For project planners, the changes require an immediate refresh of delivery documentation. The benthic implementation and monitoring plan, the monitoring scheme and any prospective Marine Recovery Fund application should be aligned to the amended Schedule 19, with annual reporting timetables set and evidence of engagement with Defra or the Fund operator collated.
Construction schedules involving the Haisborough, Hammond and Winterton SAC should reflect the additional gatekeeping steps where the Marine Recovery Fund route is used: an approved implementation and monitoring plan and a formal discharge from on-site compensation obligations. Teams should also document proportionality where effects and compensation responsibilities are shared with Norfolk Vanguard.
The Order applies from 19 December 2025. From that date, completion reports must be submitted within 12 months of finishing activities required by the benthic plan, subject to any use of the adaptive payment provisions set out in the amended Part 3 of Schedule 19.