Scottish Offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) - fisheries management measures: equality impact assessment

Stage 1: Framing

Results of framing exercise

The development of proposed fisheries management measures has been accompanied by a Sustainability Appraisal (SA) which includes a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and SEIA, these reports were published for consultation alongside proposed measures.

In December 2022, Stakeholders were invited to a workshop to provide feedback on the impact assessment methods, data and results. The feedback and clarification requests from the workshop were addressed in the relevant documents prior to public consultation. Further evidence gathering and engagement took place as part of the public consultation on the proposed management measures. A question on the impact assessments (SA, SEIA and SEIA) was included in the public consultation to capture any further comments or concerns.

The SEIA assessed potential economic and social impacts of the proposed management options that could arise from impacts on commercial fisheries. It also included potential costs to government, as these are costs borne by society. These costs range from £3.2 million to £97.7 million, reflective of the level of management measures implemented. It is not anticipated these costs would have any significant impact on any individuals.

It is worth considering that Option 2 would present the highest estimated cost to fisheries of approximately £8.8 million of lost landings, and £5.4 million of lost gross value added (GVA) per year and this represents a small amount (approximately £4/£2.35 per year) per household in Scotland. These values are also minor compared to the overall turnover of the fishing sector in Scotland (£582 million in 2019).

Further assessments undertaken include Business Regulatory Impact Assessments, a Childrens Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment, a Fairer Duty Scotland assessment and an Island Communities Impact Assessment which were also part of the public consultation.

Extent/Level of EQIA required

The Scottish Government have determined as part of the framing exercise that a light touch assessment will be taken with this EQIA as current evidence shows that the potential impacts proposed measures have minimal relevance to equality as define within the Equality Act 2010. The evidence used to reach this conclusion are the results from the SEIA assessment, and the discussions and engagement conducted with stakeholders likely to be affected by this policy implementation.

Further evidence gathering and engagement took place as part of the public consultation on the proposed management measures. A question on the SEIA was incorporated to capture any concerns or feedback. Following the publication of the consultation analysis report we have reviewed this draft EQIA.