Offshore wind energy - draft updated Sectoral Marine Plan: partial business and regulatory impact assessment
The purpose of the business and regulatory impact assessment for the draft updated Sectoral Marine Plan for offshore wind energy is to determine where the implementation of the Plan may have impacts on regulatory processes.
Introduction
The Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy (“SMP-OWE 2020”) is currently undergoing an Iterative Plan Review (“IPR”) to take account of the ScotWind and Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (“INTOG”) leasing rounds and to consider the opportunities and constraints from this development. As part of this process, the environmental and socio-economic impacts will be assessed to take account of the latest data and the increased generating capacity. These assessments include the Strategic Environmental Assessment (“SEA”), Habitats Regulations Appraisal (“HRA”), Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area Assessment (“NCMPA”) and Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (“SEIA”), as well as various internal assessments.
The purpose of the Business Regulatory Impact Assessment (“BRIA”) is to assess likely costs, benefits and risks of any proposed primary or secondary legislation, voluntary regulation, codes of practice or guidance that impact the public, private, third sector or regulators. The SEIA, which focuses on the potential positive and negative social and economic impacts the updated SMP-OWE may have on marine sectors and communities, considers many of the same requirements set out in the BRIA guidance. As part of the BRIA scoping process, a gap analysis was carried out to compare the requirements between the BRIA and SEIA, as well as identify and consider other impacts that required further assessment.
The gap analysis concluded that impacts to regulatory bodies and frameworks are not considered within the scope of the SEIA, therefore, following ministerial approval and to avoid duplication of effort and information, a partial “focused” BRIA was agreed (the gap analysis is presented in Annex A). This partial “focused” BRIA concentrates on impacts to the regulatory framework only, and will go out to consultation alongside the draft updated SMP-OWE and updated assessments. Post consultation, the final focused-BRIA will be published with the final updated SMP-OWE and assessments.