According to the statutory rule published on legislation.gov.uk, the Conservation (Natural Habitats, etc.) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026 were made by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs on 17 June 2026 and will come into operation on 8 July 2026. The instrument uses powers in section 14 of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023, and the text states that DAERA is the relevant national authority for these purposes. In practical terms, this does not create a new conservation code. It amends the long-standing Conservation (Natural Habitats, etc.) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995. Because the legal power comes from the 2023 retained EU law legislation, the amendment sits within the post-EU exit task of revising older EU-derived rules so that domestic decision-makers and approval routes are set out more clearly.
The first point to note is that Whitehall approval is not being removed across the board. The new regulation 6(10) states that where a site designated under regulation 6(1) is a European Site, the Department may not designate that site without the agreement of the Secretary of State. The substituted wording in regulation 8A(6)(b) does the same for a site classified under regulation 8A(1) where that site is a European marine site, requiring the consent of the Secretary of State. That is the clearest operational change in the text. DAERA remains central to the process, but for those specific categories it cannot take the final step alone. In plain English, the instrument keeps a shared decision model for the most sensitive European site designations and classifications.
A separate set of amendments moves other functions away from the Secretary of State and on to the Department. In regulation 28, every reference to the Secretary of State, including the heading, is replaced with the Department. In regulation 30(1) and 30(3), the person able to act becomes the Department, or persons authorised on its behalf, rather than the Secretary of State or persons authorised on his behalf. Regulation 30(2) is also adjusted so that references to the Secretary of State become references to the Department, and subparagraph (d) is removed. The same pattern appears elsewhere. Regulation 66(1) drops the words referring to the Secretary of State. Regulation 29 removes the reference to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in paragraph (1), and paragraph (4) is omitted. Read together, those amendments update the 1995 text so that the Northern Ireland department is more clearly the operative authority for a range of functions under the existing regime.
The instrument also deletes a number of individual provisions outright. Regulation 8B(5), regulation 9A(5) and regulation 36A(4) are omitted, alongside regulation 29(4) and regulation 30(2)(d). The text itself presents those changes as part of the wider amendment package, rather than as separate new duties or new offences. That matters for interpretation. Statutory amendment instruments often preserve the points where higher-level consent still applies, while removing older wording that no longer matches present institutional arrangements. On the face of this instrument, that is the main drafting exercise being carried out here.
The Explanatory Note gives the government’s reason for the change in direct terms. It says the amendments alter the role of the Secretary of State in designating or classifying European marine sites and align the procedure with the Marine Act (Northern Ireland) 2013, which already governs the designation of Marine Conservation Zones. For practitioners, that alignment point is significant. Where different conservation designations follow different approval models, legal process becomes harder to administer and harder to explain to consultees. Bringing the habitats rules into line with the 2013 marine legislation should make the approval route easier to identify in marine conservation casework.
The Explanatory Note also states that no impact assessment has been produced because no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. That indicates the amendment is primarily administrative in effect, rather than a rewrite of substantive habitat protection tests or compliance requirements. For public authorities, environmental advisers and organisations involved in designation casework, the practical question from 8 July 2026 is not whether the conservation threshold has changed, but who must sign off each stage. Day-to-day functions are being located more clearly with DAERA, while decisions on European Sites and European marine sites still carry a Secretary of State agreement or consent requirement.