Implementation of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018: report

Delivery of Islands Policy throughout the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has seen significant impacts to work across all areas of government. Whilst there have been some considerable achievements, many island-focused policies were necessarily delayed by COVID-19 to allow Ministers and officials to adapt quickly to respond to the needs of communities impacted by the pandemic.

Despite this, however, there have been a number of positive achievements which will be covered in this report. Throughout the pandemic, COVID-19 regulations were subject to an Island Communities Impact Assessment and the needs of islanders were kept constantly to the fore. These assessments can be seen online in the Publications section of the government's website www.gov.scot.

Just before the pandemic began in March, a new and dedicated Islands Team was formed by the Scottish Government to take forward the implementation of the Islands Act. Just three months later, Scotland entered its first national lockdown and the team pivoted their focus away from policy development in order to support island communities to navigate the challenges and complexities which emerged during the pandemic.

The Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance at the University of Strathclyde worked with Scottish Government officials throughout 2020 in order to carry out a survey aimed at better understanding how COVID-19 was being dealt with on islands around the world. The data from this survey helped Scottish Ministers, policy makers and wider island-related stakeholders to deal with and adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In December 2020, Scottish Ministers brought forward the new Island Communities Impact Assessments (Publication and Review of Decisions) (Scotland) Regulations 2020, and, in the midst of the pandemic, published new guidance to help relevant authorities to complete an Island Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA) as required under the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018.

Early in 2021 Scottish Ministers published The National Islands Plan (NIP) through a COVID Lens Survey which gathered responses from island authority colleagues regarding the impact of the pandemic on the delivery of National Islands Plan Strategic Objectives and Commitments. This was in recognition of the profound impact of COVID-19 on our islands.

Since the formation of the Scottish Government's Islands Team in early 2020, there have been two progress reports laid before parliament on delivery of the National Islands Plan. One in March 2021 and one in March 2022.

In 2020, Ministers introduced the £30 million Islands Programme to support delivery of the National Islands Plan by focusing investment on projects that: encourage population growth and stem population decline; deliver on Scotland's net-zero ambitions in a way that no-one is left behind; and support a green economic recovery from the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In October 2020, we carried out an extensive National Islands Plan Survey which gathered data with a view to collecting information about people's lives against which we are measuring the effectiveness of the National Islands Plan. Some 20,000 surveys were posted to adult residents of 76 permanently inhabited islands, with options to complete it on paper, online or by phone, and in English or Gaelic. A total of 4,347 people responded to the survey from 59 islands, giving a response rate of 22%.

The National Islands Plan Survey has significantly improved the availability of data held about Scotland's islands. It has also provided baseline data against which to measure the effectiveness of the Plan. An interactive data explorer can be found online.

The pandemic brought about many economic and financial pressures across our island communities. In recognition of this, the Scottish Government introduced three new community-focused funds in 2021 under the umbrella of the Islands Programme, which were designed to support health, wellbeing, employment and community resilience through activities that deliver green economic recovery from the COVID-19. These were the £2.5 million Islands Green Recovery Programme, £2.5 million Island Communities Fund and the £1.3 million Healthy Islands Fund.

The National Islands Plan is supported through the NIP Implementation Route Map 2020-2025.

In December 2020, the Scottish Government introduced commencement regulations to bring into force provisions in the Act that ensure public bodies 'island-proof' their policies, strategies and services.

An Island Communities Impact Assessment prepared by a relevant authority must be published on a website of the relevant authority. Whilst the Scottish Government are not legislatively required to monitor Island Communities Impact Assessments which are carried out by partner bodies, we are aware of almost 100 which have been supported since the introduction of the Act.

The first-ever Island Communities Impact Assessment was against Fuel Poverty (Targets, Definition and Strategy) (Scotland) Bill in early 2019. This was completed in the spirit of the Act as sections 7, 8, 10 and 13 were not yet in force and led to a number of mitigating actions in order to support the Scottish Government's aim of reducing fuel poverty within island communities in the context of the Fuel Poverty Bill.