Introduction
This report presents question by question analysis of responses to a public consultation on the next Northern Isles Ferry Services contract (NIFS4), to commence in 2028.
A summary report is also available.
Background
It is essential that the ferry services linking Orkney and Shetland with mainland Scotland are reliable, resilient and deliver for the needs of islanders, businesses and visitors. Transport Scotland wants to hear the experiences and expectations of those who use and depend on these services to inform development of the next NIFS contract. This contract, alongside the programme proposed for the replacement of five vessels set out in the Islands Connectivity Plan, will help ensure the services remain fit for the future in relation to reliability, resilience and capacity.
Knowledge gained through Transport Scotland’s existing relationship with NIFS users, and the feedback received from last year’s Islands Connectivity Plan public consultation and engagement will help inform the development of the next NIFS4 contract. This feedback was considered in the development of the consultation questions.
The consultation exercise was launched on 22 July and ran until 20 October 2025. It asked 18 questions providing an opportunity to contribute to the contract development process and to shape the future of ferry services.
The consultation documents are available.
Profile of responses
A total of 1,129 responses were available for analysis, a small number of duplicate responses were removed before the analysis was undertaken. Most of these (1,106 responses) were submitted through the Scottish Government’s Citizen Space consultation analysis platform.
A further 23 responses were sent directly to the Transport Scotland contract development team. A further response was an additional document to a submission already submitted through Citizen Space. Some of these followed the question structure set out in the consultation and a small number were statement style responses. The content of these latter responses has been analysed at the most appropriate consultation question.
Respondents were asked to identify whether they were responding as an individual or on behalf of a group or organisation. Group respondents were allocated to one of eight groups by the analysis team. A breakdown of the number of responses received by respondent type is set out below, and a full list of group respondents appended to this report as Annex 1.
| Type of respondent | n |
|---|---|
| Organisations: | No Data |
| Farming or land management organisation | 2 |
| Freight company or representative body | 3 |
| Local authority or transport partnership | 3 |
| Other business or representative body | 5 |
| Port/harbour authority | 2 |
| Public body | 2 |
| Trade union | 2 |
| Voluntary sector organisation | 3 |
| All organisations | 22 |
| % of all respondents | 2% |
| Individuals | 1107 |
| % of all respondents | 98% |
| All respondents | 1129 |
Overall, 98% of respondents to the consultation were individuals with only 2% responding on behalf of an organisation. Individual respondents are broken down according to their respondent type and location in Table 3 (Chapter 2).
The number of responses from organisations was relatively low, including compared to previous Transport Scotland consultation exercises. For example, the 2024 consultation on a new Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract (CHFS3) received 41 organisation responses, equating to 9% of all responses.
In addition to undertaking the online consultation, Transport Scotland held a number of engagement events during September 2025. Further information on these events is set out in Table 2 below.
| Location | Date | Number of sessions | Number of attendees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lerwick, Shetland | 18-19/09/25 | 5 | 78 |
| Kirkwall, Orkney | 10/09/2025 | 2 | 11 |
| Stromness, Orkney | 12/09/2025 | 2 | 15 |
Transport Scotland recorded feedback from those attending the events, analysis of which has also been included within this report.
The analysis team was also supplied with a minute of a meeting between Transport Scotland and a representative of the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland and a report from a Shetland Youth Voice Transport summit held in January 2025.
Analysis and reporting
The report presents a question-by-question analysis of answers to the closed questions. The analysis uses variable bases i.e. includes only those who answered the closed question. Please note that percentages may not sum to 100% due to rounding.
The analysis at the open questions (Questions 1, 3, 5 etc.) and of further comments at closed questions (Questions 2, 4, 6 etc) is qualitative. If a point was more frequently raised this will be indicated; for this analysis, a point is considered to be frequently made if at least 1 in 10 of those commenting raised the issue.
Please note that at open questions this will relate to all comments made at the question. Where the analysis follows on from a closed question, it will refer to those who answered the closed element in a particular way and then went on to comment. For example, at Question 4, those who supported RET fares being introduced and then went on to comment.
Otherwise, the focus is on setting out the range of issues raised. This approach reflects not only the relatively small and self-selecting sample, but also the nature of qualitative data of this type. For example, comments may vary considerably in length, focus and precision. Some may address the question directly; others may make more general observations. Given this diversity, it is often the case that specific points have been made by only a small number of respondents.
Feedback from the events has been analysed across each of the themes covered by the consultation and a summary analysis of views expressed at the stakeholder events is presented in text boxes in some of the chapters.
Finally, and as with any public consultation exercise, it should be noted that those responding generally have a particular interest in the subject area. Therefore, the views they express cannot necessarily be seen as representative of wider public opinion.