National Marine Plan 2 (NMP2) Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Scoping Report: Consultation Analysis

3. Consultation

3.1 Purpose

From 25 September 2023 until 30 October 2023 the Scottish Government Marine Directorate held a public consultation alongside the statutory consultation on the proposed scope of the SEA for the NMP2.

The consultation was an opportunity to implement our vision for engaging stakeholders during the development of NMP2:

"Everyone who uses, relies on or has an interest in Scotland's seas has the opportunity to inform decision-making in the marine space, and they embrace the National Marine Plan as a key resource to guide decision-making”

Feedback provided from this consultation will feed into the SEA process and help inform the scope of the environmental assessment.

3.2 Process

The consultation was hosted on the Scottish Government’s Citizen Space portal and consisted of six open-format questions with free-text fields, responses provided via email or post were also accepted. In total, 42 responses to the consultation were received from one individual and 41 organisations. Three organisations opted to send email submissions, which were then manually entered into Citizen Space to allow for 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. All comments submitted have been logged. Where duplicate responses have been submitted, such as through the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Gateway, and Citizen Space, we have cross-referenced and amalgamated into one response.

Those comments relating to the SEA will be anonymised and then shared with the contractor undertaking the assessment. These will be used to inform the assessment methodology which will be shared with the NMP2 Steering Group for review. The NMP2 Steering Group includes over 30 member organisations across a wide range of sectoral interests, within the Scottish marine space.

The Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA), which also forms part of the Sustainability Appraisal, will focus on the potential impacts from the planning policies in NMP2 on marine sectors. Comments received which relate to the data or approach to be used in considering the impact on marine sectors will be anonymised and shared with the contractor undertaking the SEIA for review. Any comments and suggestions on the plan itself received, have been separated and will be used by the NMP2 team as part of the feedback considered in the NMP2 development.