Island business resilience fund: island communities impact assessment (December 2025)

3. Consultation and engagement

The previous ICIA noted that no formal consultation relating to the IBRF was carried out as it was developed in response to urgent evidence based need. It highlighted that going forward we will continue to engage with key stakeholders, including HIE and island-based businesses, to help fully evaluate the impact of ongoing disruption and the Fund.

Therefore, in addition to existing data, we held three online engagement sessions in collaboration with the Scottish Islands Federation to discuss the first round of funding and gather further views on the remaining ferry-related challenges faced by island businesses.

Over the three sessions, there were 71 participants as follows:

• 25 Nov 14:30 -15:30 – 26 attendees
• 25 Nov 19:00 -19:30 – 13 attendees
• 27 Nov 12:00-13:00 – 32 attendees

This highlighted a range of views re-iterated the effects on businesses across islands that have faced capacity issues.