Conservation of Habitats and Species (Offshore Wind) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2026: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment

Disclaimer

This document is a point in time assessment of the likely effects of the above-named proposal on the rights and wellbeing of children and young people. This impact assessment should be read in conjunction with other impact assessments prepared for this proposal.

Scottish Government acknowledge the importance of monitoring and evaluating the impact of strategic decisions and legislation on children’s rights and wellbeing. Any information gathered during implementation of the legislation or strategic decision to which the impact assessment relates, will be used to inform future determinations of impact. Any new strategic decision or new legislation (including amending legislation) would be subject to a new CRWIA in line with the legislative requirements.

1. Brief Summary

Type of proposal:

Scottish Statutory Instrument

Name of proposal:

The Conservation of Habitats and Species (Offshore Wind) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2026

Proposal’s overall aims and intended purpose:

The Scottish Government has developed the Strategic Compensation Policy for Offshore Wind to allow new ways for dealing with negative impacts on our protected habitats and species that can occur from offshore wind activities like wind turbines.

The key purpose of this work is to allow offshore wind to be built, which is important for fighting climate change, while also enabling positive action for the marine environment.

The Strategic Compensation Policy for Offshore Wind will be delivered through a piece of legislation referred to as a Scottish Statutory Instrument (SSI). Scottish Government will also write guidance to help people understand how to apply the SSI in practice.

Changes to the current requirements for compensation under the Habitats Regulations regime are needed to achieve Ministerial commitments of delivering Scotland’s offshore wind ambitions, of combatting the climate and nature crises, and to realising the significant economic opportunities of Scotland’s path to net zero.

To achieve these ambitions, a reformed approach to the application of the Habitats Regulations for offshore wind is required to allow for a more practical approach to the delivery of environmental compensation, where it is required.

Under the current regime, when it is predicted that an offshore wind activity will cause damage to parts of the environment that are protected under the Habitats Regulations, compensatory measures must be put in place to address this. The duty currently requires ‘like-for-like’ compensatory measures to be secured, which means the compensation must address the specific elements of the environment that are impacted. However, there is a limited amount of ‘like-for-like’ compensatory measures available for the damage predicted to be caused as a result of offshore wind activity in Scotland and this causes challenges for delivering Scotland’s offshore wind ambitions.

To address this issue, the Scottish Government has been working collaboratively with the UK Government on the development of cross-UK regulatory reform for offshore wind. It has been agreed that there should be a more flexible approach to compensatory measures under the Habitats Regulations for offshore wind. An SSI is needed to give effect to these changes.

The SSI will make changes to two sets of regulations which apply in the Scottish inshore region (0-12 nautical miles (nm)). The changes will mean that a wider range of compensatory measures can be used to offset the impacts of offshore wind activities, not just like-for-like measures. The SSI will also require Scottish Ministers to publish guidance which will have to be considered when compensatory measures are being identified for an offshore wind activity.

Definitions of technical terms:

Achieving Net Zero - refers to balancing the amount of planet-warming greenhouse gases produced by human activities with the amount being actively removed from the atmosphere. In other words, this means no longer adding to the total amount of these harmful gases in the atmosphere to limit climate change.

Compensatory measures – the things that can be done to repair the damage that is done to the environment by offshore wind activities.

Habitats Regulations – a set of laws in the UK that aim to protect natural habitats and species.

Scottish inshore region – the area of the sea that the Scottish Parliament can make decisions about.

Start date of proposal’s development:

The development of the SSI started in early 2025.

Start date of CRWIA process:

March 2025

2. With reference given to the requirements of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024, which aspects of the proposal are relevant to/impact upon children’s rights?

The Strategic Compensation for Offshore Wind policy and the Conservation of Habitats and Species (Offshore Wind) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2026 which give effect to the policy, will not have an impact upon children’s rights.

This is due to the nature of the SSI and underpinning policy which is only anticipated to affect the offshore wind industry; other marine industries; environmental non-governmental organisations (eNGOs); government regulators; public bodies and science and research bodies.

It is worth noting however, that the changes introduced by the SSI aim to facilitate the expansion of offshore wind projects, which are a key part of the Scottish Government’s strategy to achieve net zero and tackle the climate and nature crises. It is anticipated that increasing offshore wind activity will play an important role in reducing emissions and addressing climate change.

This could have an indirect positive impact on children’s health – through reduced reliance on fossil fuels and improved air quality. Therefore, if the SSI achieves its environmental ambitions, there could be an indirect impact to the right of health for children and young people (under the UNCRC Article 24). However, this impact is noted as ‘neutral’ given this potential outcome cannot be guaranteed and as it would be indirect and could be influenced by other factors, it could not be directly attributed to the SSI.

Given this, the overall assessment is that the SSI will have no impact on children’s rights.

3. Please provide a summary of the evidence gathered which will be used to inform your decision-making and the content of the proposal

A series of pre-consultation workshops were held throughout July 2024. The purpose of these pre-consultation stakeholder workshops was to collect first-stage views and comments from the relevant stakeholders on the development of our policy routes and options.

All of the stakeholder feedback provided was collated and analysed. There were no responses indicating that the drafted policy proposals on the Strategic Compensation for Offshore Wind would have an impact on the rights and wellbeing of children and young people.

As part of progressing the policy’s development further, the Scottish Government launched a public consultation which has ran for six weeks from 22 July to 1 September 2025. The purpose and aims of this consultation was to collect stakeholder views on the policy paper, gathering views to outstanding questions that needed to be resolved and potential proposals that could be implemented.

Analysis of the consultation findings did not find views in relation to the policy proposals having impacts on children and/or young people’s rights.

During the consultation, stakeholders were asked questions on the technical proposals of the policy but were also given opportunities to outline the impacts of the policy on various stakeholder groups.

Although the policy consultation was made publicly available, it was most relevant to specific stakeholders, such as offshore wind developers, other marine industries, science and research bodies, eNGOs, government regulators and public bodies. As the policy proposals are not directed at children or young people and have not been anticipated to affect children or young people, there was no perceived need to engage with this group in a targeted manner.

However, to ensure a wide reach of stakeholder engagement in the policy, a youth organisation that seeks to increase involvement of young people in policy change was identified and invited to take part in the consultation.

Throughout the consultation, the data collection remained open to capturing unintended impacts and unexpected results, and the reporting of the unforeseen consequences was encouraged.

4. Further to the evidence described at ‘3’ have you identified any ‘gaps’ in evidence which may prevent determination of impact? If yes, please provide an explanation of how they will be addressed

No gaps in evidence have been identified that prevent determination of impact.

5. Analysis of Evidence

Not applicable as no impact concluded.

6. What changes (if any) have been made to the proposal as a result of this assessment?

Not applicable as no impact concluded.