Islands business resilience fund: island communities impact assessment

3. Consultation and engagement

In addition to analysing the cancellation data, we have received consistent and detailed feedback from island communities and businesses on the impact of ferry disruption. Stakeholder views have also been gathered from existing consultation reports, meetings and other channels of engagements to inform the design of the IBRF.

Ministers, officials and enterprise agencies have heard directly from those most affected, including engagement between the Cabinet Secretary for Transport (and her officials) and island community groups such as the South Uist Business Impact Group. HIE also provided us with a wide range of views from the businesses they support highlighting the challenges they have experienced as a result of ferry disruption.

Formal consultation on the IBRF has not been required as it was developed in direct response to urgent and evidence-based need. However, going forward we will continue to engage with key stakeholders, including HIE and island-based businesses to help fully evaluate the impact of the Fund.

To ensure the IBRF reflects the unique nature of the challenges faced by island-based businesses, HIE will commission an independent evaluation of the fund in course. This will help understand its impact and inform any future funding or policy decisions.