The UK vision for clean, safe, healthy, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas was set out in Safeguarding our Seas, published in 2002. The Government made a commitment in this report to produce an integrated assessment of UK waters to help gauge if we were achieving our vision.

Charting Progress was prepared jointly by Defra and the Devolved Administrations on behalf of the UK Government. It showed the extent to which UK seas meet the vision.

Producing the report

The work to produce Charting Progress was completed in four stages:

Stage 1

Four sector reports covering the main themes were prepared by government agencies and advisors.

1. Marine Environment Quality (PDF 7.5 MB)

2. Marine Processes and Climate (PDF 7.4 MB)

3. Marine Habitats and Species (PDF 9.7 MB)

4. Marine Fish and Fisheries (PDF 1.5 MB)

Stage 2

The result of drawing together the individual sector reports for each of 8 Regional Areas was the Integrated Regional Assessment (PDF 8.6 MB)

Stage 3

Each of the sector reports and the Integrated Regional Assessments were peer reviewed by independent experts from outside Government. (PDF 10 KB)

Stage 4 - "Charting Progress"

The Government prepared the summary: "Charting Progress: An Integrated Assessment of the State of UK Seas". This drew on the comprehensive sectoral and regional reports which will need to be referred to in order to see the detailed evidence which underlies the assessments given in the report. A full copy of the report can be downloaded (PDF 4.8 MB)