Offshore wind energy - draft updated Sectoral Marine Plan: islands communities impact assessment

Approach to this assessment

This ICIA considers the potential impact of the draft updated SMP-OWE on Scottish island communities. Evidence from the ICIA^[10] and public consultation undertaken for the previous SMP-OWE (2020)^[11] and new evidence through direct and targeted engagement with stakeholder organisations have been used to consider these potential impacts. Further analysis has been undertaken as part of a broader plan-level Social and Economic Impact Assessment (“SEIA”) which assesses the potential costs to other marine activities, benefits created by and impacts to wider society associated with offshore wind deployment at the national scale. A summary of key findings of the SEIA has been included in the relevant sections. Any comments of relevance to impacts to island communities received during the public consultation on the draft updated SMP-OWE and associated plan-level assessments will also be used to inform the completion of the final ICIA report. The final ICIA report will be published alongside the adopted updated SMP-OWE.

Scope of assessment

9 Option Areas (OAs), previously termed “Plan Options (POs)” (8 ScotWind and 1 INTOG) have been identified as being located close to island communities (as defined in Part 1 of the 2018 Act), or in areas from which island communities derive economic and other benefits. It is therefore likely that impacts of the updated SMP-OWE may be felt differently between island and mainland communities, and between communities of different islands across Scotland.

Of the ScotWind OAs the majority remain the same as consulted on in the previous SMP-OWE (2020). The exception is that the area previously referred to as NE1, east of the Shetland islands, was split into three distinct areas (NE1A, NE1B and NE1C) through the ScotWind leasing round. Each of these areas are encompassed within the original NE1 OA boundary, and so there has been no increase to the overall spatial footprint through the splitting of the NE1 OA. Additionally, OA IN5 was identified through the INTOG Initial Planning Framework.

It is challenging to quantify the potential impacts of the updated SMP-OWE on all receptors, including island communities. The scale and final project design of future development is subject to a wide range of factors out with the scope of the SMP-OWE and will be dependent on a range of both commercial and political decisions. At the time of writing, the sites leased through both the ScotWind and INTOG leasing rounds are at varying stages of development and so there is differing levels of information available on the development proposals. It is possible that sites may not be developed to their full extent or developed at all. For the purposes of this assessment, it has been assumed that the maximum development scenario will be deployed, to ensure that the full range of perceived impacts and opportunities are captured. The views collated and presented in this pre-consultation assessment report are qualitative and reflective of the issues raised during the engagement detailed below.

Stakeholder engagement undertaken to inform this assessment

The Scottish Government contacted the below stakeholders to discuss the potential impacts of the updated SMP-OWE on island communities across Scotland. Stakeholders were initially contacted in March – April 2023, and were offered follow-up meetings in Summer 2024, to allow for any changes in views or evidence made available in the time since the original meetings to be incorporated ahead of the public consultation.

Stakeholder

Shetland Islands Council

• Meeting 2023: 23 March 2023
• Meeting 2024: 6 August 2024

Orkney Islands Council

• Meeting 2023: 26 April 2023
• Meeting 2024: N/A - Minor update to previous minutes, but no meeting held

Argyll and Bute Council

• Meeting 2023: 17 April 2023
• Meeting 2024: No response

Highland Council

• Meeting 2023: 27 April 2023
• Meeting 2024: No response

North Ayrshire Council

• Meeting 2023: No date agreed
• Meeting 2024: 30 August 2024

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar

• Meeting 2023: No response
• Meeting 2024: 29 July 2024

Highlands and Islands Enterprise

• Meeting 2023: 27 April 2023
• Meeting 2024: 27 September 2024

Scottish Islands Federation

• Meeting 2023: No date agreed
• Meeting 2024: 22 July 2024, with briefing pack and questions circulated to attendees following. No responses to the briefing pack and questions were received.

The purposes of engaging with Local Authorities with jurisdiction over inhabited islands and with organisations representing the interests of Scottish island communities ahead of the public consultation were:

• To gain an understanding of if and how the existing SMP-OWE (2020) and its supporting documents are used by local authorities, and how the updated SMP-OWE may be used in future;
• To begin to gather evidence on the perceived possible impacts of offshore wind development on island communities across Scotland;
• To request that organisations provide suggestions of additional evidence sources (e.g. datasets, anecdotal evidence) to factor into this ICIA process.

To steer these discussions, the following questions were posed at each meeting:

• Could you tell us how the existing SMP-OWE (2020) is used by your organisation?
• The objectives of the SMP-OWE (2020) are to minimise the impact from offshore wind on the marine environment and to maximise the socio-economic benefit. In your view, how successful has the plan been in achieving this?
• In your experience, how have proposals for offshore wind developments affected the local community?
• Is there any data or evidence on the impact of offshore wind developments on local island communities we should be aware of?

These questions were also circulated to attendees of each meeting, to allow further time for consideration.

The responses to the existing SMP-OWE (2020) consultation, which ran between 18 December 2019 and 25 March 2020, were used as supplementary evidence in addition to the targeted engagement outlined above. This consultation consisted of the draft SMP-OWE (2020) and associated assessment reports, including the partial ICIA report. Respondents were asked “do you support the selection of the following draft Plan Options?” with the option to rank each draft PO from “strongly oppose” to “strongly support.” Respondents were also asked for their views on the partial ICIA report. For each of the 8 ScotWind POs identified as being within the scope of this partial ICIA, all progressed to adoption by Scottish Ministers in 2020, as no significant oppositions were raised at the time of consultation^[12].