The Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025 Final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment

Section 2: Engagement and information gathering

Engagement approach

The 2025 Regulations represent the enactment of a long-planned phased process to bring all of SEPA’s authorisation systems into one place, the integrated authorisation framework (IAF). Stakeholders have been aware of this work before the IAF entered into force by way of the 2018 Regulations. The changes that this BRIA concerns were a major part of a public consultation in 2023 (see below), alongside other changes made by the 2025 Regulations. Before this, regulated business stakeholders have had the opportunity to informally discuss future changes and proposals relevant for their sectors with SEPA, as the regulator and, also to approach Scottish Government directly.

A typical approach to engagement for regulatory changes of this type has been taken, involving informal engagement, evidence gathering, public consultation on a proposal and targeted engagement sessions. For already regulated businesses, informal engagement ahead of more formal engagement through public consultation was possible. However, for sectors that are currently unregulated including non-waste anaerobic digestion, carbon capture and some electricity generators the regulator approached operators that it was aware of and through separate more formal engagement attempted to bring views to the table.

Internal SG engagement/ engagement with wider Public Sector

Internal SG engagement

All relevant policy areas within Scottish Government were consulted before, during and after the public consultation and other engagement activities for these Regulations. This outreach included NatureScot. Policy leads in other areas with a peripheral interest were also consulted.

Policy areas involved or engaged included: water environment, waste management, island communities, agriculture, SEPA sponsorship hub, wildlife, air quality, local authorities, Rural and Environmental Science and Analytical Services, and Scottish Government legal dept.

No engagement with the International Trade and Investment Directorate (DITI) has been undertaken for the 2025 Regulations, as they do not impact international trade and investment (see separate IA).

UK/ Devolved Administrations

Yes. As part of the engagement sessions described above, SEPA engaged with the Environment Agency of England, Natural Resources Wales, Northern Ireland Environment Agency. Scottish Government policy counterparts in Defra were made aware of the proposals and kept up to date with progress towards delivering these amendments. Regulation of generators was discussed with the UK energy operator Ofgem, specifically in relation to the islands.

Wider Public Sector

Local authorities and COSLA were made aware of engagement sessions and six local authorities were invited specifically to attend the session on changes to electricity generators’ regulation. Scotland’s enterprise agencies were not engaged with.

International

Not relevant for this BRIA.

Business / Third Sector engagement

Scottish Government and SEPA, jointly and separately, held a series of stakeholder engagement sessions while the 2023 public consultation (see below) was open. The Scottish Government-led sessions comprised six sessions held either in-person or virtually between 20 February and 12 March 2024. One of these sessions dealt specifically with the proposals for electricity generators, while another targeted a specific stakeholder (NFUS). For the online session on generators, the six Local Authorities that have islands within their boundaries were invited. In total more than 150 people representing various organisations and businesses attended these engagement sessions.

SEPA recorded 31 instances of engagement between 19 January and 9 April 2024 with each involving a single targeted stakeholder organisation as follows: Grissan, Scottish Water (two sessions), Binn Group, RMAS (Resource Management Association Scotland), Scottish Salmon, Law Society, UKELA, Energy UK, EA, NRW, NIEA, OPRED, Aggreko, SSE, Chartered Institute for Waste Management, REA, Dalgleish Associates, NatureScot, SAC, SESA, Scotch Whisky Association, NetRegs Business Advisory Group, Entrust Environmental, Cooke Aquaculture Scotland. The engagements took a number of formats; 12 were meetings but the others included phone conversations and written engagement through email.

SEPA have contacted individually the potentially impacted non-waste anaerobic digestion operators, and their representative trade bodies, where it had contact details, and spoken at conferences to identify whether and how they might be impacted by the proposals. No responses to the questions addressed by the BRIA were received, though further contact will be maintained as the specific detail of regulation is developed.

Public consultation

Proposals for this integrated authorisation framework have been subject to several public consultations, such as the joint Scottish Government–SEPA consultation on Proposals for an Integrated Framework of Environmental Regulation in 2012. This generated strong and widespread support, with proposals for simpler, more risk-based environmental regulation supported by 92% of respondents.

In January 2017, a consultation on a more detailed set of proposals was published. 61 responses were received. The vast majority of respondents (over 80%) agreed with the proposals, and feedback was taken on board to inform the development of the draft Regulations.

The draft Environmental Authorisation (Scotland) Regulations (EASR) in turn were subject to public consultation during September-November 2017 (see Annex 1 for the draft Regulations). This time 29 responses were received. The bulk of the detailed provisions set out in the draft EASR were widely supported. Some comments on specific points of detail were made, and these were taken into account in preparing the final draft of the EASR which came into force in 2018.

Most recently the “Scottish Government Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018 draft - proposed amendments: consultation” opened on 15 December 2023 and ran for 12 weeks. The consultation sought views on all the changes that the 2024 draft Regulations proposed, and included six questions on the new activities that are the subject of this BRIA.

Stakeholders generally welcomed the proposals presented in the consultation. The following themes in responses were apparent in relation to the new activities and the changes related to sewage sludge. The change in relation to the regulation of sewage and sludge activities was broadly accepted, but with certain caveats on specific technical requirements. Inclusion of the new activities carbon capture, non-waste anaerobic digestion, and generators was generally supported. However, stakeholders raised the point that care is required to support “fledgling” sectors (carbon capture and non-waste anaerobic digestion) and any regulation needs to be proportionate. For generators, the main concerns were about meeting proposed requirements on the islands. The consultation was helpful in that it allowed respondents to identify a number of issues with the proposals, and suggest where changes would be needed to ensure workability, proportionality and that operators/stakeholders would not be disproportionately impacted by any of the proposed changes.

Stakeholders from business, public sector, NGOs and private individuals were all represented in the 53 responses.

Other stakeholders

Policy officials have continued to engage with specific sectors after the public consultation prior to the introduction of the 2025 Regulations, including externally in the power generation sector and internally with policy leads across Scottish Government.