Heat in Buildings Bill consultation: strategic environmental assessment

8. Monitoring

8.1.1 Section 19 of the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act (2005) requires the responsible authority to monitor significant environmental effects of the implementation of the PPS. This should be done in a way to enable them to take appropriate remedial action, where applicable.

8.1.2 A wide range of existing programmes have associated monitoring in place at the national level. For example, the Annual Energy Statement reports^[71] and the Annual compendium of Scottish energy statistic^[72] on progress towards the targets outlined in the 2017 Scottish Energy Strategy^[73] and in the recently published draft Energy Strategy^[74]. This includes reporting on heat demand, main sources of heat and the amount of renewable heat generated annually.

8.1.3 Building on these existing monitoring arrangements, a monitoring and evaluation framework will also be published in 2023 to help measure progress against our Heat in Buildings Strategy. It is proposed that monitoring for significant environmental effects is an integral part of this framework. It is anticipated that it will set out:

• a comprehensive framework covering homes, work places, public sector buildings and other non-domestic buildings; and
• a range of output and outcome indicators, linked to our outcomes, to inform an annual statement of progress, taking account of the Climate Change Plan monitoring framework, monitoring and evaluation requirements for Fuel Poverty as required by the Fuel Poverty (Targets, Definition and Strategy) Act 2019.

8.1.4 It is proposed that monitoring for significant environmental effects is an integral part of this framework.