Protection of Military Remains Act 1986

The Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 (1986 c. 35) is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom which provides protection for the wreckage of military aircraft and designated military vessels. The Act provides for two types of protection: protected places and controlled sites. Military aircraft are automatically protected but vessels have to be specifically designated. The primary reason for designation is to protect as a 'war grave' the last resting place of UK servicemen (or other nationals); however, the Act does not require the loss of the vessel to have occurred during war.

There have been four statutory instruments designating wrecks under the Act, in 2002 (amended 2003), 2006, 2008 and 2009. Twelve wrecks are designated as controlled sites, on which diving is banned. These twelve vessels (including one German submarine), all lost on military service, provide a small representative sample of all such vessels. All other vessels that meet the criteria of the act are subject to a rolling programme of assessment and those that meet the criteria will be designated as protected places. The order that is currently in force, since February 2010, designates 55 wrecks as protected places. This means that diving is allowed but divers must follow the rule of look, don't touch.

The Act provides for two types of protection: protected places and controlled sites. The primary reason for designation is to protect the last resting place of UK servicemen (or other nationals). While this is often referred to as protection as a war grave, the protected wrecks are not graves in the sense of falling under the control of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, nor are they required to have been lost during wartime.

The wreckage of all military aircraft (UK or other nations) that crashed in the United Kingdom, in United Kingdom territorial waters or in United Kingdom controlled waters are automatically protected irrespective of whether there was loss of life or whether the wrecking occurred during peacetime or in a combat. The wreckage of United Kingdom military aircraft are also protected under the act elsewhere in the world.

Wrecks are designated by name and can be designated as protected places even if the location of the site is not known. Thus, the wreckage of a UK military aircraft is automatically a protected place even if the physical remains have not been previously discovered or identified. Shipwrecks need to be specifically designated, and designation as a protected place applies only to vessels that sank after 4 August 1914 (the date of the United Kingdom's entry into the First World War). The Act makes it an offence to interfere with a protected place, to disturb the site or to remove anything from the site. Divers may visit the site but the rule is look, don't touch and don't penetrate. The law concerning protected places applies anywhere in the world, but in practice, outside the UK, the sanctions can only be enforced against UK citizens, UK flagged ships, or vessels landing in the UK, unless backed by local legislation. The first and only license granted in respect of a vessel designated a protected place was granted to Mike Williams of the Nautical Archaeology Society, for a project to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the loss of the M2 submarine including the placing of a white ensign underwater.

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