Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: equality impact assessment

Background

The natural environment, or nature, includes all naturally occurring living things, which is also referred to as biodiversity. Biodiversity is the web of life. It is the variety of all living things and the ecosystems where they live (on land or in water). It comprises the living organisms in a particular space, whether in a window-box, garden, park, meadow, peatland, river, loch, estuary, ocean, beach or mountain top.

Biodiversity inspires people. It has enormous value in its own right but is also central to our survival as a species. Scotland’s economy, jobs, health and wellbeing depend on it yet humanity has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of all plants.

In the 2024-25 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government committed to :

“Bring forward a Natural Environment Bill to establish the framework for statutory targets to restore and protect nature. It will also include provisions to modernise the way in which National Parks and deer are managed, and provide powers to update environmental impact assessment and habitats legislation to support delivery of our net zero and biodiversity goals.”

Statutory targets for improving biodiversity.

The Scottish Government published the first Biodiversity Strategy (“the Strategy”) in 2004. Although there is evidence of localised positive outcomes for nature, as the most recent 2024 Strategy notes, the ongoing decline of biodiversity demonstrates that we must do a great deal more and at scale to ‘bend the curve’ of biodiversity loss.

The Strategy sets out an ambitious long-term vision for Scotland to halt biodiversity loss by 2030 and to restore and regenerate biodiversity by 2045. The aim of the statutory nature restoration targets is to secure accountability for driving this action across Government.

Statutory nature restoration targets, established through the Bill, will form a key part of the Scottish Government’s Strategic Framework for Biodiversity, which includes the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and the underpinning Delivery Plans. The series of rolling Delivery Plans will ensure that the approach is agile and dynamic, responding to conditions on the ground and at sea.

New delegated power for future amendments to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) legislation and the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994

The Habitats Regulations and the EIA regime are key legal frameworks underpinning environmental protection and assessment processes in Scotland, on land and at sea.

Section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 provided enabling powers for Scottish Ministers to make and amend this legislation for the purpose of implementing EU obligations.

However, following the UK’s exit from the EU, and repeal of the 1972 Act the power in section 2(2) of the 1972 Act has been lost in this legislative area, which significantly limits the Scottish Government’s ability to amend these key pieces of legislation, if needed, to respond to evolving circumstances, or to address existing issues and inefficiencies.

Modernisation of the aims and powers of National Parks

There are currently two National Parks operating in Scotland: Cairngorms National Park; and Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. Working with partners and their local communities, our National Parks can be exemplars in contributing towards Scotland’s ambitious targets to halt biodiversity loss by 2030 and reverse declines by 2045.

National Parks can help drive the adoption of nature-based solutions – such as restoring degraded peatland and expanding woodland – in order to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change in a way that is fair and inclusive to those living and working in their areas.

In its Programme for Government 2023-24 the Scottish Government committed to consulting on the modernisation of National Parks legislation. Further details of the consultations carried out and analysis of the responses is detailed below.

Reforming legislation relating to deer management

Adult deer have no natural predators in Scotland and the effective management of wild deer has been seen as a vital component of land management in Scotland for more than 80 years. More recently, it has also been recognised that achieving sustainable deer populations is fundamental to Scotland’s ability to meet its climate and biodiversity goals.

The Deer Working Group (“DWG”), which was established in 2017 to review the existing statutory and non-statutory arrangements for the management of wild deer in Scotland, made ninety-nine recommendations^[1] to modernise Scotland’s systems of deer management, approximately half of which are legislative in nature.

The Scottish Government’s 2021 response^[2] to the DWG Report set out our commitment to implement the majority of the legislative recommendations during this parliamentary term.