Sectoral Marine Plan for offshore wind energy - iterative review process: call for evidence

Marine Scotland has opened the first annual sectoral marine planning call for evidence. This call for evidence will be open until the 28 February 2022, if you have conducted research pertinent to offshore wind and you think it is relevant to the current sectoral marine plan or the wider planning process, please submit the completed form and evidence to SectoralMarinePlanning@gov.scot.

The Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy (SMP-OWE) or (the Plan) adopted in October 2020, identified 15 Plan Options for offshore wind development in Scotland. The plan constitutes the bases for the Crown Estate Scotland ScotWind seabed leasing round. The Plan was developed in combination with a series of environmental and socio-economic assessments to identify the potential impacts of offshore wind on the marine environment, communities and protected species.

A key part of the Plan implementation includes the application of an Iterative Plan Review (IPR) process (identified as a plan-level mitigation measure within the Strategic Environmental Assessment and Habitats Regulations Appraisal reports (2019)). This process allows for new evidence through, for example, scientific research and/or monitoring programmes to be considered and incorporated into the Plan where appropriate.

We are now announcing the first annual call for new evidence pertinent to the implementation of the SMP-OWEin Scotland. This evidence will play a key role in determining whether the plan is still relevant or needs reviewing. All evidence provided must be in accordance with the principles set out below and information not meeting agreed standards may be returned to the sender for resubmission once issues are rectified.

Evidence submitted can be:

• published scientific paper, with accompanying accessible brief for non-expert audience
• grey literature, not published in research publications, includes:

• research reports
• baseline characterisation data and analysis
• post consent monitoring reports
• working papers, conference proceedings
• theses, pre-prints
• white paper and reports produces by government departments, academics and industry

• datasets 

Datasets (including qualitative data and shapefiles, if representing spatial data) should be submitted within the relevant category of evidence (see point 1) and include reason for data collection, methods of collection and metadata in MEDIN format (MEDIN discovery metadata standard). Unprocessed data (e.g. those not accompanied by the relevant interpretation at point 1) may not be considered. It is outside the remit of the Technical Advisory Group, Ornithology Working Group  or Sectoral Planning Programme Board to process and interpret new raw data.

 Submitted evidence should: 

• be accompanied by a one-page covering note identifying the receptor to which the evidence refers, the category of evidence (see point 1) explaining why the evidence is pertinent to the Plan, what issue it is addressing and, where possible, reference to the relevant ScotMER evidence gaps
• include a key contact to answer any follow up questions from the governance groups, and the contact of the individual/organisation who carried out the survey and analysed the data
• provide the parameters, assumptions and application of any model utilised
• provide an assessment of uncertainty alongside any results presented. Specific attention should be paid to how these results affect the SMP efficacy
• include any images within the document itself

Sectoral Marine Plan for offshore wind energy - iterative review process: call for evidence - form

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