Draft provisions for a Wild Fisheries (Scotland) Bill/Draft Wild Fisheries Stratgey: a consultation

Chapter 7: Assessing impact

Strategic Environmental Assessment

71. In accordance with the requirements of the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005, the potential scope and content of the draft Bill provisions and the draft national strategy were reviewed against the statutory criteria set out in the Act, to ascertain whether they would be likely to have significant effects on the environment. It is worth noting that many of the freshwater fisheries management activities addressed by these draft policy instruments are already taking place in many areas of Scotland. However, they provide an opportunity to extend these to the whole of Scotland, across all freshwater fish species, and to provide improved integration and communication between the various agencies, organisations and stakeholders involved in freshwater fisheries management. Based on the evaluation against the statutory criteria, the Scottish Government has concluded that they may give rise to environmental effects. As a result, our view is that strategic environmental assessment is required at this stage.

72. A strategic environmental assessment has been undertaken and the results are set out in the Environmental Report that sits alongside this consultation document.

Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment

73. A detailed Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment ( BRIA) will be developed as part of the accompanying documents for the Bill when it is laid in the Scottish Parliament. For the purposes of this consultation we have not looked to develop a draft BRIA, not least as we are still engaging with stakeholders around the makeup of the future legislation, much of which would not benefit from speculation at this juncture.

74. However to assist that process going forward we anticipate that we will be soon be in a position to publish our independently commissioned work on the economic and social value of all of Scotland's wild fisheries. This will provide up to date information on the value of Scotland's wild fish resources and help inform the development of policy in the future. We will do our best to ensure that this is available during the consultation period.

75. At this stage we want to invite information on the potential impact of the proposals outlined in this consultation.

Q24. What do you consider would be the key resource issues for an FMO under the proposed new regulatory structure?

Q25. What other information do we need to consider in developing a BRIA for the Bill when it is laid before the Scottish Parliament?