Island impact assessments will be required under the new Act

A wide range of Scottish governmental bodies, public authorities, health boards, local authorities, colleges and transport partnerships are required, under the terms of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018, to conduct an impact assessment when a policy or service ‘is likely to have an effect on an island community which is significantly different from its effect on other communities (including other island communities) in the area in which the authority exercises its functions’. 

The new guidance and tool kit sets out a seven-step process for organisation and agencies to follow and provides a template for use in completing an assessment under the Act.

Launching the consultation process, the Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Our islands face particular challenges around distance, geography, connectivity and demography, so it is important that policy makers consider these properly.

“It is also important that organisations and agencies make sure islands receive fair and equitable treatment and that […] policy, strategy or service outcomes are tailored to their unique circumstances.”

A spokesperson for Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar said: “The Comhairle has been a key player in bringing forward the Islands Act and Island Proofing.

“We will be analysing the detail of the guidance on Island Communities Impact Assessments over the next few weeks and the Comhairle will respond to the consultation by the due date of November 9.”

The Islands (Scotland) Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2018, and is described by the Scottish Government as being ‘only one of a handful of place-based pieces of legislation to focus specifically on islands in the world’.

The measures the Act contains, like the Island Communities Impact Assessment, are designed, the Scottish Government states, ‘to meaningfully improve outcomes for island communities’.

It goes on to define ‘an island community’ as ‘a community of two or more people, all of whom live permanently on the island with a common interest in the identity of that island’.