Scottish Environmental Impact Assessment regulations: consultation

Part One - Introduction

1. Scottish Ministers are inviting comments on the enclosed consultation which sets out proposals for implementing the European Directive 2014/52/EU amending Directive 2011/92/ EU on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment (known as the Environmental Impact Assessment or ' EIA' Directive).

2. The Directive's main aim is to provide a high level of protection of the environment and to contribute to the integration of environmental considerations into the preparation of projects with a view to reduce their impact on the environment.

3. The requirements of the Directive form part of European law and must be incorporated into the domestic legislation of Member States. The Directive leaves it to Members States to decide how best to transpose these requirements.

4. Following the EU Referendum the Scottish Government is committed to explore all options to secure Scotland's interests and protect its relationship with the EU. The UK, and therefore Scotland, continues to be a member of the EU and as such is statutorily obligated to transpose the Directive into Scottish legislation.

5. The Scottish Government's Better Regulation agenda seeks to support and promote sustainable economic growth through ensuring regulation adheres to the five principles of proportionality; consistency; accountability; transparency; and targeted regulation. The new draft regulations seek to be in keeping with these principles and minimise additional regulatory burden whilst protecting the environment.

6. In Scotland the EIA Directive has been transposed into scots law through a number of Scottish Statutory Instruments relating to individual EIA consenting regimes including; Planning, Energy, Marine Licensing, Trunk roads, Transport and Works Projects, Agriculture, Land Drainage, Forestry, Flood Management, Ports and Harbours and Controlled Activities.

7. To minimise duplication through the consultation process, this consultation seeks your views on changes to eight of the above regimes. Ports and Harbours, Flooding and Controlled Activities will progress the Transposition separately.

8. We have sought to provide as much consistency as possible in our approach to the transposition across the regimes, where there are proposed differences to the approach taken by individual regimes these are highlighted throughout the consultation. You can see how the proposals have been drafted in legislation through the accompanying draft legislation; the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Regulations and The Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017.

9. This consultation will be open for 12 weeks from 09 August to 31 October 2016.