Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018: proposed amendments

Closed 31 Mar 2024

Opened 15 Dec 2023

Contact

Environmental Quality and Resilience

chemicals@gov.scot

Feedback updated 25 Jun 2024

We asked

We sought views on the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018: proposed amendments. The consultation opened on the 15 December 2023 and closed on 30 March 2024.

You said

We received 50 responses to our consultation questions. These included responses from 42 organisations and 8 individuals.

Respondents were generally supportive of:

  • the proposals on the technical provisions relating to water, waste, and industrial activities;
  • the four proposed new activities and changes to the process in relation to the public consultation and call-in procedure;
  • the various amendments to the common procedures in the 2018 Regulations and technical provisions for radioactive substances activities.

A full analysis of the consultation is available on the Scottish Government website.

We did

The analysis of responses received has been published, along with the individual responses (where permission was granted). The Scottish Government intends to implement the proposals set out in the consultation to amend the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018. We will now take all the comments and suggestions made as a result of the public consultation into consideration when preparing the Scottish Statutory Instrument.

Results updated 25 Jun 2024

The Scottish Government is grateful to everyone who took the time and effort to respond. The responses have been analysed by Scottish Government staff dealing with the consultation proposals.

Links:

Published responses

View submitted responses where consent has been given to publish the response.

Overview

The Environmental Authorisation (Scotland) Regulations 2018 amendment will bring together all the permissioning arrangements for Scottish Environment Protection Agency's (SEPA’s) four main regulatory regimes (water, waste, radioactive substances and Pollution Prevention and Control) into an integrated structure and under a single standardised procedure.

These authorisations are an integral tool in SEPA’s approach to controlling and minimising the impact of certain activities on the environment. The procedures and requirements associates with them, however, are currently inconsistent across different regulatory regimes. This is unnecessarily complicated, difficult to understand and onerous to administer, both for SEPA and business.

The radioactive substances regime was the first to be incorporated into the integrated authorisation framework, in 2018. This consultation sets out to complete the migration of the other three regimes (water, waste, and Pollution Prevention and Control), and proposes new activities to be regulated under the new regime.

Please read the consultation paper. The consultation paper contains the background information for this consultation. You may find it useful to read or refer to while responding.

SEPA have a consultation running concurrently on the “Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018: Proposed types of authorisation for waste, water and industrial activities.” This will support implementation of the framework. SEPA’s consultation will remain open until 12 April 2024.

Why your views matter

We would like your feedback to ensure that the integrated framework is fit for purpose by incorporating SEPA’s four main regulatory regimes (water, waste, radioactive substances and Pollution Prevention and Control).

Your feedback is also sought on the proposed new activities and amendments to the common prodcedures that we will include into the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018.

This consultation also seeks your views to explore how ammonia emission from livestock farms might be better managed and reduced.

Interests

  • Main hub