Ministerial foreword

The islands of Scotland are at the heart of our sense of ourselves as a country. For people who live on each and every unique Scottish island, there is a profound sense of belonging, resilience and identity. Island life has always brought with it great opportunities and experience but also the challenge of transport and connectivity.

In my meetings and visits with islanders, they have made clear to me that they have, and deserve to have, high expectations of transport services to meet their connectivity needs. Those needs may change and need to be understood and responded to by a system that can deliver reliability and resilience in challenging and, as we have seen through recent storms, worsening weather environments as a result of the changing climate.

We need to learn from the adaptability of islanders at the same time as providing confidence, certainty and regularity of transport provision as they plan their daily lives and as communities and businesses plan for the future.

The Islands Connectivity Plan contains a draft Strategic Approach for public consultation and an updated draft of the Vessels and Ports Plan. We are inviting comments on both, supported by a series of consultation questions. In parallel, Transport Scotland officials will be holding a series of engagement events with communities and stakeholders in the coming months.

This will not happen overnight. It will take time and sustained focus and effort by Governments, operators, asset owners and other stakeholders to get it right and to reach these goals. Progress will depend on operational, technical and financial solutions in the context of a challenging fiscal environment.

This Islands Connectivity Plan sets out to capture what the transport connectivity needs are for islanders and ferry users on mainland peninsulas. It recognises that we must ensure our islands remain attractive places to live, to visit and to relocate to. Sustainable population growth is needed to meet the labour demand of public services and enable workforces to explore new opportunities, for example in renewable energy.

I believe our islands are hugely important in helping us reach net zero and this Plan is rightly ambitious when it comes to reducing emissions. However, we must also address the here and now and both the short and longer term demands of transport connectivity. We need to rethink what reducing emissions from island travel means, and consider the specific needs of islanders as part of a just transition which recognises that those needs and solutions will vary between locations. This is not simply in terms of mode of transport, which is primarily ferries, but a future that sees smart low carbon aviation, potential new fixed links of bridges, tunnels and causeways and a more connected end to end transport system enabling increased use of public transport and active travel. Greater self-sufficiency of islands may reduce the need for frequent visits to the mainland, and therefore carbon miles. We can also envisage a future of increasing freight traffic reflecting the growth of quality food, drink and other exports off islands. Future island population growth may also increase demand for the transport of goods and services to our islands.

It is clear that the most immediate issue is to ensure we have resilient ferry fleets to serve island and peninsula communities. The Scottish Government, through Transport Scotland, supports lifeline services to the Clyde and Hebrides and from mainland Scotland to the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland. As such, the “Small Vessel Replacement Programme” which will shortly move to procurement and then to vessel delivery is central to the Vessels and Ports Plan published alongside this document. Further vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services (CHFS) and Northern Isles Ferry Services (NIFS) Ferry Services are already in the design stage and progressing towards procurement. Feedback from key stakeholders has been incorporated into the Vessels and Ports Plan following publication of the initial consultation in December 2022. Plans for specific projects have been subject to consultation with ferry communities over the last year.

The six new major vessels for the CHFS network being built for delivery in 2024 and 2025 and the seven small vessels along with the supporting port and harbour works, including electric connectivity, will be significant steps towards replacing the CalMac Fleet, increasing reliability, resilience and capacity as well as contributing to our low carbon journey.

I would like to acknowledge and thank the individuals and ferry communities who have helped shape this Plan and the Small Vessel Replacement Programme. In particular, the Government also benefitted from the timely, comprehensive Report into “A Modern and Sustainable Ferry Service for Scotland” by the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee of the Scottish Parliament and responded positively at the time to recommendations which have helped inform this and the next CHFS contract development work of Transport Scotland.

A key message throughout has been the need for continuous, regular and meaningful engagement with islanders. This has been recognised with the engagement of Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) and Transport Scotland in their port, harbours and ferry replacement works in this document and remains a firm commitment going forward.

Looking ahead, we will be completing reviews of the transport connectivity needs of each community served by Clyde & Hebrides and Northern Isles Ferry services. We will continue to support local authorities who have responsibility for their own internal ferry services as they develop plans for the future. In addition, our work to reform ferry fares policy, develop plans for reducing carbon emissions and improve connections with onward and connecting travel as part of a single integrated transport system is all ongoing.

I welcome your input into this consultation.

Fiona Hyslop

Minister for Transport