Wednesday 30 January 2019

In November 2018 Crown Estate Scotland published an update on leasing design and potential timescales. To begin to provide certainty to potential applicants they said in November that the earliest timeline for their leasing was for it to be launched in April 2019.

TImescales

Final timings for Crown Estate Scotland's leasing will be linked to Marine Scotland’s preparation of a Sectoral Marine Plan. Crown Estate Scotland have now decided to update their position about the earliest timeline for their leasing. Crown Estate Scotland have decided that they will not launch their leasing prior to July 2019, even if information on the draft Plan has been published before then.

On the assumptions that: their leasing is launched in July 2019; Crown Estate Scotland allow six months for preparation of applications; and that the adopted Plan is available around nine months after that, the dates for the various steps would be as follows:

Earliest timeline

- Crown Estate Scotland Leasing Launched - July 2019

- Deadline for applications to Crown Estate Scotland - January 2020

- Offer of option agreements to successful applicants - April 2020

- Commencement of Clearing - April 2020

- Offer of option agreements through Clearing - September 2020

- Earliest commencement of second cycle of leasing - July 2021

In these assumption, this is the earliest timeline for Crown Estate Scotland leasing, with the actual timeline possibly being later.

Next steps

Crown Estate Scotland will give a further update on our intended timings in April 2019, and as appropriate thereafter.

In the April 2019 update they will set out further information which may be helpful to those considering applying to ScotWind Leasing, indicating the type and level of information they might expect in applications, and setting out further detail in any other areas where Crown Estate Scotland can usefully add clarity in advance of launching the leasing.