Part 4 of the Act provides for legislative changes necessary to implement provisions in Part IV of the BBNJ Agreement regarding environmental impact assessments (EIAs) as they apply to activities within the remit of the domestic marine licensing regime. Part IV builds upon existing UNCLOS provisions by outlining a detailed framework for assessing the potential impacts to the marine environment of planned human activities in ABNJ. EIA is defined in the Agreement as "a process to identify and evaluate the potential impacts of an activity to inform decision-making".
	The Act amends the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 and the Marine Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2007 to align that marine licensing regime with the BBNJ EIA process in respect of activities in ABNJ. This includes technical changes to the existing powers under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 to amend the list of licensable marine activities. The Act also amends the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 and The Marine Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 to align the marine licensing regime in Scotland in an equivalent manner.
	The Act also amends the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 to ensure that Environmental Outcome Reports (EORs) can apply to activities in ABNJ. This ensures that EIA requirements arising from the BBNJ Agreement can be implemented through any future EOR framework that may be adopted.
Part 1 and Part 2 – Introduction and Marine Genetic Resources Part 4 – Marine licensing etc.