Independent review of Scottish aquaculture consenting

Appendix 3: Consultation Strategy

INDEPENDENT CONSENTING REVIEW FOR AQUACULTURE

CONSULTATION STRATEGY

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 INTRODUCTION

This document forms a Consultation Strategy in relation to the project titled Independent Review of the Consenting Regime for Scottish Aquaculture being undertaken for The Crown Estate and Marine Scotland by Poseidon Aquatic Resource Management Ltd (Poseidon) in association with Ironside Farrar.

It covers consultation being undertaken with regulators, Local Authorities and aquaculture industry. In the context of this work on the consenting process for aquaculture, the focus is on finfish and shellfish; although information and views on seaweed will also be collated where relevant.

1.2 CONTENTS AND STRUCTURE

This report provides a 1-page summary on the project background and objectives (Section 2), which will be used to introduce the project to all consultees.

This is followed by two separate questionnaires to be used when consulting:

• Local Authorities, regulators and statutory consultees (Section 3); and
• Industry (Section 4).

The list of consultees has been developed and refined in conjunction with the Project Steering Group, and is provided in excel format as Appendix 1: Independent Consenting Review ( ICR) Consultee Directory.

1.3 APPROACH TO CONSULTATION

Consultation with Local Authorities ( LA) will be undertaken by James Miller of Ironside Farrar. The relevant contacts from each LA will be contacted by phone and/or email prior to undertaking a structured interview conducted through face-to-face meetings or telephone/videoconference. After collating responses from individual LAs, an opportunity will be provided for a group response. This will be facilitated by the project team requesting a written response from the relevant LA representative, who would consult with the LA group in formulating their response. Advice will be sought from the LAs on who would be appropriate for this role; otherwise the current LA/ CoSLA representative on the Capacity Working Group will be approached.

Consultation with other regulators / statutory consultees and industry will be undertaken by Fiona Nimmo of Poseidon. Again, each stakeholder will be contacted by phone and/or email prior to undertaking a detailed interview, which will be conducted by phone/video conference or through face-to-face meetings. Meetings anticipated to be undertaken in person are indicated within the Consultee Directory (Appendix 1) and categorised as "Face-to-face" under the heading Type of Consultation. Some consultees within the directory have been included to ensure complete representation across the consenting process and may not have specific views or want to input in detail to this project. In such cases, they will be provided information and asked for any general comments, but may not wish to be interviewed in detail. These consultees have been indicated within the Consultee Directory and categorised as "Email/general comments" under the heading Type of Consultation. The majority of consultation will be completed by a combination of email and telephone/video conference; categorised as "Email & telephone/video conference" within the Consultee Directory.

Both questionnaires will be piloted during the first interviews and reviewed before subsequent consultation to capture any edits and any other emerging aspects or questions. Any additional emerging questions will be put forward to the Steering Group for approval prior to incorporation into the questionnaires.

The Steering Group highlighted the synergies of this project with the SARF 110 project titled Strategic Consideration for Locational Regulation of Shellfish Aquaculture in Scotland. The SARF project is currently underway and holding a stakeholder workshop in Inverness on 29 October. It is proposed that Fiona Nimmo will attend this workshop to share knowledge and experiences from each project to date.

In addition the Association of Shellfish Growers ( ASSG) are holding a conference on Scottish Cultivated Shellfish - Demand Driven Success in Oban on 22-23 ^rd October. A number of shellfish farm directors/owners are presenting and attending this conference, providing a good opportunity for face-to-face consultation. It is therefore proposed that Fiona Nimmo attends this conference.

Five year time period

When collating information on the number of applications received / submitted, the questionnaires focus on a time period of five years (2010-2014). The Steering Group concur that a five year time period is reasonable, and covers the period of current legislation in place and associated consenting policies and processes under scrutiny, following both the transfer of planning controls to Local Authorities in 2007 and coming into force of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010.

1.4 TIMING OF CONSULTATION

Consultation will be undertaken from mid October through to the end of November 2015.

2 ONE PAGE PROJECT SUMMARY

3 LOCAL AUTHORITIES, REGULATORS AND STATUTORY CONSULTEE QUESTIONNAIRE

4 INDUSTRY QUESTIONNAIRE