UEFA European Championship (Scotland) Bill: island communities impact assessment

Step Three – Consultation

• Is there information already gathered through previous engagement?
• How will you carry out your consultation and in what timescales? Public meetings / Local Authorities / key stakeholders?
• What questions will you ask when considering how to address island realities?
• Separate consultation events for island communities / Local Authorities?

On 2 May 2024 the Scottish Government launched a 12-week public consultation to seek views on the commercial rights protection for EURO 2028. This included:

• A public consultation paper^[1] and Partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA)^[2] published on the Scottish Government website supported by a Citizen Space survey^[3].
• Targeted engagement during the consultation period with those most likely to be affected and groups representing these interests.

Additionally, four consultation events were held to engage with key stakeholders and the public.

Although we expect that the impacts on the islands will be minimal, we did share the consultation paper and information on the related consultation events with Local Authorities covering island communities (Orkney, Shetland, Highland, North Ayrshire, Argyll and Bute and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar).

None of the questions in the public consultation directly related to the islands. This was because we knew from the outset that the focus of the Bill would be on event zones located in Glasgow. However, there were opportunities for respondents to cover any issues they wanted to highlight related to the islands in their responses to other questions in the public consultation survey. The public consultation asked the question “in what ways, if any, do you think the proposed legislation would affect groups of people differently than others” and there were no responses which related to the island generally and any specific island communities.

The consultation closed on 26 July 2024. A total of 26 responses were received in addition to feedback from the 18 people who attended the four consultation events. The analysis of responses to the public consultation^[4] and the Scottish Government’s response^[5] were published on 11 October 2024.

Respondents to the consultation survey were asked to provide their postcode. This indicated that none of the individual respondents lived on Scotland’s islands. Similarly, none of the organisations responding were based on the islands or directly represented island communities. However, some of the organisations responding such as Advice Direct Scotland and the Federation of Small Businesses are national organisations and as such represent people and businesses right across the country.

None of the responses to the public consultation highlighted aspects specifically related to island communities.

Our assessment was that further targeted consultation focusing on the islands – or direct engagement with organisations directly engaging island communities – was not necessary due to the minimal island impacts expected. However, Local Authorities covering the islands were invited to attend the public consultation virtual engagement sessions providing a route for them to engage further. A representative from Highland Council attended the virtual engagement session on 25 June but no specific issues related to the islands were raised.