National Marine Plan 2 Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Scoping Report

Under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 a Sustainability Appraisal is required to assess the potential impacts from the proposed policies in National Marine Plan 2 (NMP2), on marine sectors, communities and the marine environment. 

As part of the Sustainability Appraisal a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) will be conducted alongside the development of the NMP2. This process is designed to determine the potential impacts of the policies on the environment and allow for subsequent adjustment to the plan, where required, to minimise the identified impacts. 

The first stage in the SEA was a scoping exercise culminating in the production of a Scoping Report, published 25 September 2023.

From 25 September 2023 until 30 October 2023 the Scottish Government Marine Directorate held a public consultation seeking views on the NMP2 SEA Scoping Report. 

The consultation was hosted on the Scottish Government’s Citizen Space portal and consisted of six open-format questions, responses provided via email or post were also accepted. 

In total forty-two responses were received in response to the consultation; one individual and 41 organisations. Three organisations sent responses by email which were then manually entered into Citizen Space to allow for full and complete analysis. All responses were read in full by the NMP2 team, with thematic analysis of each response being conducted to capture the main opinions expressed by respondents and to explore overarching feedback. 

The categories providing most responses were:
•    public sector bodies including regulators and local authorities - 29%
•    representative bodies and charities – 29%

Responses received from organisations were split according to type. Most responses in the ‘businesses/private sector category’ were from organisations with their main interest in the renewables sector.

The need for greater emphasis on the global climate emergency and support for the transition to net zero was highlighted, and it was clear that respondents wanted to see greater emphasis on halting loss and proactively recovering biodiversity in the marine environment.

Generally, respondents were supportive of the proposed approach to the SEA and of the identification of key environmental issues under each topic to be used in the assessment and to inform the SEA objectives.  
 
However, several respondents felt that commentary on the SEA framework was challenging because the updated SEA objectives for the NMP2 were not available in the scoping report. 

Read the  consultation analysis report.

All responses received were recorded and categorised according to theme and topic. Responses with common themes were grouped to provide a series of general statements relating directly to each of the six questions. 

All comments submitted were logged. Comments specifically relating to the SEA process have been anonymised, shared with the assessing contractor, and will be used to inform the assessment methodology. Proposed additional evidence base sources, and additional environmental considerations were compiled according to theme and will be shared with the assessing contractors to ensure all contributions are considered. 

A number of common points on proposals for the new NMP2 itself were also observed during the analysis and will be used in the development of the NMP2.