The Conservation (Natural Habitats, etc) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 (‘the Habitats Regulations’) transpose the requirements of the EC ‘Habitats’ Directive and aspects of the ‘Wild Birds’ Directive. Since they were originally made in 1995, the Habitats Regulations have been subject to amendment on 6 separate occasions. The last set of amendments was made in 2012.
In order to make better regulation, and to improve transparency and legal clarity it has been decided to undertake this ‘consolidation’ exercise in order to bring the original set of regulations and the subsequent 6 sets of amendments together into one comprehensive statute.