2025, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, Marine Internships, Optimising Value of Scour and Cable Protection series https://portal.medin.org.uk/portal/start.php?tpc=015_a5a2cd0f-047c-4f22-975a-2e96ef6a3090 This project was hosted by Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust with the help of the partner organisations, The Crown Estate, Ørsted and Natural England. One third of United Kingdom (UK) offshore wind farms (OWFs) will reach the end of their operational life by 2035, meaning that greater consideration must now be given to decommissioning. Concerns have been raised surrounding the feasibility of current decommissioning processes, particularly regarding the removal of scour and cable protection, and there remains a lack of a robust evidence base to guide best practice. Current policy expectations require full removal of scour and cable protection. However, there are growing calls for alternative approaches, including partial removal and full retention, which may deliver the greatest holistic value for both the environment and society. To explore this issue, the project adopted a stakeholder engagement approach involving developers, marine consultancies, conservation charities, and governmental bodies to investigate value creation opportunities. Stakeholder input revealed that the development of a more adaptable, context specific framework for decommissioning could potentially support equitable benefit sharing and biodiversity gains. However, the current rigidity of decommissioning frameworks and additional barriers deter innovative approaches from being realised. In response, this report provides a decommissioning decision tree framework considering the merits of different decommissioning approaches across different contexts. To ensure that the decision trees are applicable to real-world scenarios, key barriers have been identified, and recommendations have been put forward to address challenges. For decision trees to be ready for policy application, further research is required to explore how value creation options from alternative decommissioning options can be made viable. In addition, stakeholder collaboration is needed to establish common ground earlier in the leasing process. Overall, this report highlights how value creation opportunities could be supported and developed to become practical solutions. 20260105T16:10:51