Current status: Answered by Stephen Gethins on 24 August 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, as part of the process to update the Good Practice Principles for Community Benefits from Onshore Renewable Energy Developments, what (a) regional discussion events and (b) targeted engagement have taken place with (i) community groups and (ii) developers.
The Scottish Government is updating its Good Practice Principles for Community Benefits from Onshore Renewable Energy Developments to reflect how Scotland’s energy landscape has evolved since the last publication in 2019.
To inform this work, and alongside a full public consultation in 2025, officials undertook a programme of engagement during spring 2026 to seek feedback on proposals in Onshore renewable energy - refreshing the good practice principles for community benefits: working paper - gov.scot.
Regional discussion events with community groups consisted of five online events covering the Highlands, Islands, Central Scotland, North East Scotland, and South Scotland. These sessions were attended by representatives of community benefit groups, community councils, development trusts, third sector organisations and local authorities.
Targeted engagement with developers and community groups included two online roundtable discussions chaired by the former Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy. One roundtable was attended by renewable energy developers, trade associations and enterprise agencies. The second brought together representatives from community councils, community development trusts, community benefit funds, regional partnerships and national intermediary organisations from across Scotland.
A youth workshop was also delivered in partnership with the Scottish Youth Parliament as part of the wider programme of engagement supporting the update of the Good Practice Principles.