Our analysis of a recent public consultation will inform the Strategic Compensation Policy for Offshore Wind ahead of approval by Scottish Ministers

To help address the global climate emergency and nature crisis, the Strategic Compensation Policy for Offshore Wind is being developed by Scottish Government.

Enabled by the UK Energy Act 2023, the policy proposes to amend the Habitats Regulations for offshore wind to provide new opportunities for investment to conserve Scotland’s marine environment, by enabling a more flexible approach to the requirements for compensation and unlocking barriers to offshore wind deployment in Scotland and the climate and economic benefits offshore wind brings. 

As part of a public consultation seeking views on the proposed Habitats Regulations reform, Scottish Government commissioned ABPmer to undertake:

• A Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to inform the consultation
• An analysis of the resulting consultation responses

Understanding the likely environmental effects of the policy

The SEA provides a high-level assessment of the potential environmental effects likely to result from the policy, and considerations of a series of key questions reflecting the scope of the assessment, as well as the environmental protection objectives from relevant legislation. The SEA was undertaken early in the policy development process to ensure environmental considerations were integrated into policy development decision-making.

Our assessment identified the individual and overall potential beneficial, neutral and adverse effects of the policy on:

• Biodiversity, Flora and fauna
• Soil (marine geology and coastal processes)
• Water
• Climatic factors
• Cultural heritages
• Landscape/seascape

The assessment of individual effects were carried out on the basis of four core principles derived from the policy:

1. How ‘the network’ of protected sites is defined
2. How ‘overall coherence’ of the network is defined
3. Whether compensatory measures should directly link to the feature impacted
4. Whether the requirement for compensatory measures to be additional to normal/standard practice is maintained

A total of 12 options were considered across the four core principles.

Read the full SEA report at the Scottish Government website

Analysing the consultation results

Scottish Government ran a six-week consultation to collect and understand the views of individuals and organisations on the proposed Habitats Regulations reform and underlying policy approaches. Our Consultation Analysis Report provides an independent analysis of responses.

The report discusses responses to each of the 17 consultation questions, and a summary analysis of nine overarching themes. Respondents identified the need for:

1. Strategic, evidence-based compensation
2. Compensation hierarchy and additionality
3. Robust monitoring, adaptive management and governance
4. Community, equity and local benefit
5. Transparency, trust and stakeholder engagement
6. Legal clarity, policy alignment and safeguards
7. Assessing and managing cumulative impacts and proportionate responses
8. Overcompensation in cases of high uncertainty
9. Additional resource and capacity

Read the full Consultation Analysis Report at the Scottish Government website

Next steps

In response to the consultation and our analysis, Scottish Government will finalise the Strategic Compensation Policy and supporting information to inform new legislation and guidance, for approval by Scottish Ministers.

ABPmer advises marine sectors on regulatory and policy matters, with a long history supporting government and its agencies in developing the evidence base against which policy decisions are made.

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