Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Act 2026

• “stop notice” means a notice prohibiting a person from carrying on an activity specified in the notice until the person has taken such steps as may be specified in the notice;

• “UK craft” means— a ship that is a British ship by virtue of section 1(1)(a) or (d) of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 (ships registered in the United Kingdom and certain small ships with qualifying owners), a Government ship within the meaning given by section 308(4) of that Act, or any other craft to which the Agreement applies and which has a qualifying UK connection (see subsection (2));

• “UNCLOS” means the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (Cmnd 8941);

• “United Kingdom person” means— an individual who is a British citizen or habitually resident in the United Kingdom, or a person that is incorporated or formed under the law of any part of the United Kingdom;

• “utilisation”, in relation to marine genetic resources or digital sequence information, means— the use of those resources or that information in carrying out relevant research and development, or the commercialisation of relevant research and development carried out using those resources or that information;

• “utilisation project” has the meaning given by section 3(1).

• (2) For the purposes of paragraph (c) of the definition of “UK craft” in subsection (1), a craft has “a qualifying UK connection” if—

• (a) it is not a British ship by virtue of section 1(c) of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 (ships registered under the law of a relevant British possession),

• (b) it is not, and has not been deployed from, a ship which has been granted the nationality of a state other than the United Kingdom in accordance with Article 91 of UNCLOS, and

• (c) it is—

• (i) owned or operated by a United Kingdom person, or

• (ii) being used after being deployed from the United Kingdom or from a ship within paragraph (a) or (b) of the definition of “UK craft” in subsection (1).

• (3) The Secretary of State may by regulations amend or otherwise modify the meaning of “a qualifying UK connection”.

• (4) For the purposes of interpreting references in this Act to areas beyond national jurisdiction, a relevant maritime zone of any of the British overseas territories is to be treated as if it were an exclusive economic zone within the meaning of UNCLOS (see Article 55).

• (5) In subsection (4), “relevant maritime zone” includes—

• (a) an exclusive fishing zone,

• (b) an ecological protection zone, and

• (c) any other zone in relation to which the territory in question asserts or exercises any rights or jurisdiction of the sort referred to in Article 56(1) of UNCLOS.

• (6) Regulations under subsection (1) that are made for the purposes of the definition of “digital sequence information” are subject to the negative procedure.

• (7) Regulations under subsection (3) that amend this section are subject to the affirmative procedure.

• (8) Any other regulations under subsection (3) are subject to the negative procedure.

Power to make consequential provision

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• (1) The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision that is consequential on this Act.

• (2) Regulations under this section may amend or repeal provision made by an Act passed—

• (a) before this Act, or

• (b) later in the same session of Parliament as this Act,

(as well as provision made under such an Act).

• (3) Regulations under this section that amend or repeal provision made by an Act are subject to the draft affirmative procedure.

• (4) Any other regulations under this section are subject to the negative procedure.

Regulations under this Act

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• (1) Regulations under this Act are to be made by statutory instrument.

• (2) A power to make regulations under this Act includes power to—

• (a) confer a function (including a discretion) on any person;

• (b) make consequential, supplementary, incidental, transitional, transitory or saving provision;

• (c) make different provision for different purposes or for different areas.

• (3) Regulations under this Act that provide for civil sanctions—

• (a) must provide a right of appeal against the imposition of any such sanction;

• (b) may make any provision corresponding to, or dealing with similar matters to, provision made by or capable of being made under the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008.

• (4) Where regulations under this Act are subject to “the draft affirmative procedure”, the regulations may not be made unless a draft of the statutory instrument containing them has been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament.

• (5) Where regulations under this Act are subject to “the made affirmative procedure”, the statutory instrument containing the regulations must be laid before Parliament after being made.

• (6) Regulations contained in a statutory instrument laid before Parliament under subsection (5) cease to have effect at the end of the period of 28 days beginning with the day on which the instrument is made unless, during that period, the instrument is approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.

• (7) In calculating the period of 28 days, no account is to be taken of any whole days that fall within a period during which—

• (a) Parliament is dissolved or prorogued, or

• (b) either House of Parliament is adjourned for more than 4 days.

• (8) If regulations cease to have a effect as a result of subsection (6), that does not—

• (a) affect the validity of anything previously done under the regulations, or

• (b) prevent the making of new regulations.

• (9) Where regulations under this Act are subject to “the negative procedure”, the statutory instrument containing them is subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

• (10) Any provision that may be made by regulations under this Act subject to the negative procedure may be made in regulations subject to the draft affirmative procedure or the made affirmative procedure.

• (11) This section does not apply to regulations under—

• (a) section 10,

• (b) section 16,

• (c) section 25, or

• (d) section 32.

Crown application

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• (1) This Act binds the Crown (but see section 8 and Article 4 of the Agreement).

• (2) The Crown is not criminally liable as a result of anything in this Act.

• (3) Despite subsection (2), this Act applies to persons in the service of the Crown as it applies to other persons.

Extent

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• (1) Sections 23 and 25 extend to Scotland only.

• (2) The rest of this Act extends to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

• (3) His Majesty may by Order in Council provide for any of the provisions of this Act to extend, with or without modifications, to the Isle of Man or to any British overseas territory.

Commencement

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• (1) Except as provided in subsection (2), this Act comes into force on the day on which it is passed.

• (2) Sections 2 to 8, 13, 21 and 24 come into force on such day as the Secretary of State may by regulations appoint.

• (3) Different days may be appointed for different purposes.

• (4) The Secretary of State may by regulations make transitional or saving provision in connection with the coming into force of any provision of this Act.

• (5) The power to make regulations under subsection (4) includes power to make different provision for different purposes.

• (6) Regulations under this section are to be made by statutory instrument.

Short title

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This Act may be cited as the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Act 2026.

Schedule

1

Where the utilisation involves or leads to any result within Article 12(8)(a) of the Agreement (publications, patents, product development etc), the information referred to in Article 12(8)(a) to (d) must be given within the period of 1 month beginning on the day on which the result is achieved.

2

Where the utilisation involves commercialisation, the information referred to in Article 12(8)(b) to (e) of the Agreement must be given—

• (a) within the period of 1 month beginning with the day on which the product in question is made available, and

• (b) within each subsequent period of 12 months for any part of which the product remains available.

3

Information does not have to be given where—

• (a) the relevant person does not have, and could not with reasonable effort obtain, the information, or

• (b) in a case where the utilisation concerned is that of digital sequence information, it is for any other reason not reasonably practicable to give the information.

4

The Secretary of State may by written notice to the relevant person extend the period within which any information has to be given.

5

In this Schedule, “the utilisation” means the utilisation that—

• (a) forms part of the utilisation project concerned, and

• (b) falls within section 3(1).