Marine Major Casework Lead Adviser (Ref:5304)
Natural England
Closing date: Friday 22nd September 2023
Reference number: 307138
Salary: £27,273
Location: East Midlands (England), East of England, London (region), North East England, North West England, South East England, South West England, West Midlands (England), Yorkshire and the Humber
Job Summary
This position is based Nationally
Job description
Do you have a passion for nature and the environment? Do you want to make a real difference and secure significant environmental gains in the present and the future? Do you enjoy working in a team? Can you see yourself advising communities and customers to maximise gains for the Natural Environment?
If this appeals to you, a career at Natural England offers rewarding opportunities to secure environmental improvements and play your part in creating a better future for people and nature.
The priority work Natural England is delivering includes:
- Establishing a Nature Recovery Network to help wildlife thrive
- Monitoring environmental changes to identify and help reduce the effects of climate change
- Working with farmers and landowners to develop greener food production methods
- Advising on plans for new developments to maximise gains for nature.
- Providing ways for people to better connect with nature, including green social prescribing.
We are the Government’s Adviser for the natural environment, playing a vital role in delivering the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan, an ambitious vision which brings new opportunities to protect and enhance and to achieve real outcomes for the environment.
Find out more about the work of Natural England at www.gov.uk/government/organisations/natural-england
Find out more about a career in Natural England at
www.naturalenglandcareers.org.uk
The Team
Natural England’s role in the offshore wind sector is to provide advice on the natural environment in England to a range of partners and stakeholders. We have both a statutory and non-statutory role: the former, as a consultee on Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects including offshore wind farms and marine plans; the latter, as experts and advisors on marine and coastal landscape and ecology issues. We have a particular role in advising on proposals likely to impact protected species and sites, including those designated for natural beauty (AONBs, National Parks) and wildlife (Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Ramsar sites, Special Protection Areas, Special Areas of Conservation, Marine Conservation Zones). We work with our sponsor Department, Defra, to deliver elements of the 25 Year Environment Plan and associated marine initiatives including the UK Marine Strategy. We outline our short-term aims for our Sustainable Development Programme in our Action Plan, including focusing on proactive and strategic advice at plan level; building environmental considerations in early; and developing strategic solutions to environmental challenges relating to offshore renewables development
It’s an exciting, but challenging time in marine sustainable development, and particularly in offshore wind. In 2020, the UK generated more electricity from renewables than fossil fuels for the first time. It’s expected that by 2030 the UK will get a third of its energy from offshore wind. Expansion of offshore wind is central to achieving Government’s ambitious ‘Net Zero’ targets, and w will play a crucial role in securing the best outcomes for the natural environment as the sector continues to grow.
The successful candidate will play a central role in the co-ordination and delivery of Natural England’s formal technical advice on major development in the marine environment. These roles will initially focus on the delivery of work around offshore renewable energy but may also encompass major casework across the marine industries portfolio.
Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities
- Take ownership of casework, coordinating the provision of advice from across Natural England. building expertise to deliver quality assured, robust advice on Marine Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) and other major marine development.
- This will include (but not be limited to) the provision of advice on Environmental Impacts Assessments, Habitat Regulations Assessments (including technical supporting information); working with developers to ensure environmental impacts of developments have been fully addressed in order to achieve the best outcomes for the natural environment.
- Provision of statutory advice to competent authorities within specified statutory timeframes.
- Responding to post-consent consultations on discharge of Development Consent Orders (DCO) and Marine license conditions.
- Provision of advice to developers to inform survey and monitoring plans and reports through Natural England’s Discretionary Advice Service (DAS).
- Provision of chargeable advice through DAS, to maximize early engagement opportunities to achieve better outcomes for the natural environment.
- Building partnerships with customers, primarily industry, Planning Inspectorate (PINS), Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Marine Management Organisation (MMO), and stakeholders to resolve complex or contentious planning issues.
- Contribute to internal business improvement projects to improve the delivery of offshore wind casework.
- Identify any risks associated with the delivery of this work and ensure they are escalated appropriately.
- Participate in relevant internal technical networks, showing leadership & sharing best practice with others to support development of strategic approaches to challenges, and promote skills development across the wider team.
