The National Islands Plan

You may recall earlier on in 2019, the IoHDT distributed information about the National Islands Plan and a visit from the Scottish Islands Federation in order to hold a consultation event and obtain your input into the plan itself.

The proposed National Islands Plan sets a direction of travel for the Scottish Government and provides a framework for action in order to meaningfully improve outcomes for island communities.

The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 introduces a number of measures to underpin Scottish Governements key objective of ensuring that there is a sustained focus across Government and public sector to meet the needs of island communities now and in the future.

One of the first provisions of the Act introduced a duty on Scottish Ministers to prepare a National Islands Plan (the Plan). The Plan should set out the main objectives and strategy of Scottish Ministers in relation to improving outcomes for island communities that result from, or are contributed to by, the carrying out of functions of a public nature.

From April to July 2019, there was a wide consultation on what was important to islanders and through that process, it was identified that a range of issues need to be addressed in order to achieve our objective of improving life on Scotlands islands.

Call for evidence

Since being presented to the Scottish Parliament there are 40 days to consider the proposed National Islands Plan. The Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee has launched a call for views on the proposed Plan which you can view here

The deadline for submission is 31st October, the details for submitting your evidence are available via the link above.

You can download the full Proposed National Islands Plan here Proposed National Islands Plan

To download the Hoy and Walls report, please click Hoy Report