Seòmar agus comataidhean

In the 2023-24 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government committed to pilot a new aquaculture consenting process in two local authority areas to help deliver a more streamlined regime across Scotland.

I am pleased to inform Parliament that pilots for a new pre-application consenting process for fish farm developments are underway in the Shetland and Highland local authority areas.

The commencement of these pilots is a result of the work undertaken by the Consenting Task Group, which I established in November 2022 to consider the recommendations of the Independent Review of Aquaculture Consenting and to identify and pilot improvements to the consenting system.

The Consenting Task Group, which includes representatives from the fish farming sector, SEPA, local authorities and other regulators, have worked together to co-design a new management process which maintains robust assessment of development proposals, but which coordinates and enables appropriately informed regulatory decisions to be made as quickly as possible.

During the pilot phase, the Consenting Task Group will continue to meet on a quarterly basis to share key learnings and make improvements as part of an iterative review process.

I would like to thank the Consenting Task Group’s Chair, Professor Dickon Howell, and all the task group members for their contributions to the pilots and I look forward to further progress. Information on the work of the Consenting Task Group is available on the Scottish Government webpages.