Highly Protected Marine Areas: stakeholder engagement plan

Third-party proposals

A twelve week submission window will allow for third-party proposals to be submitted. The process is outlined in the Site Selection Guidelines. Third-party proposals will be assessed against both the Site Selection Guidelines and the overall Policy Framework for HPMAs. Consideration of favourable proposals will form a key element of the workshop series. We recommend you contact the HPMA Policy Team by emailing HPMA@gov.scot at an early stage if you are considering submitting a third-party proposal.

Stakeholders can begin to gather supporting evidence for third-party proposals before publication of the Policy Framework and Site Selection Guidelines, in Spring 2023. We will introduce a deadline for submitting third party proposals to allow applications to be reviewed as part of our proposed Workshop 3 on "Themes and Emerging Ideas".

Beyond this initial submission period, the process will remain flexible and responsive to the provision of further supporting evidence but inevitably, a final deadline for evidence will also need to be identified. Third party proposals that are carried through to the finalised site proposals will be subject to a further formal public consultation period alongside all the other proposed sites.