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In 1977, 1979 and 1983 the wreck was dived by commercial consortiums who obtained a licence to survey and film it from the UK MOD, and the Aberdeen oil field diving support vessel, the Stena Workhorse was engaged in the 1983 survey.

In 1997, I obtained permission from the UK MOD to lead an expedition to dive Hampshire with a view to expanding my first book Dive Scapa Flow to cover the deeper wrecks such as this one, which had now become within reach of divers using the new technical diving techniques and breathing gases that had begun to develop in the UK in the mid-1990s. In 2000, I was able to lead a further expedition with MOD permission to revisit the wreck.

In 2002, Hampshire, along with many other famous British naval wrecks received protection by legislation. She was designated as a Controlled Site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 – the higher of the two types of protection under the statute. This meant that no diving whatsoever was permitted on the wreck or within 300 metres of it. Some other naval wrecks were designated as Protected Places, which meant that divers could visit them but not enter, interfere or tamper with the wreck in any way.