Our business is driven by three main things:

• There is a wide range of European and domestic legislation that we are responsible for enforcing and that provides the framework for much of our regulatory work.
  
  
• The decisions that we make rely on having sound scientific information about the quality of our environment.
  
  
• And, as a public body, we work to help achieve the priorities set on behalf of Scotland by the Parliament and Executive.

As well as being a regulator, SEPA is looking to further its education and partnership work, as a way of promoting positive attitudes to the environment and supporting good practice.

Even as a regulator, SEPA does more than try to apply the letter of the law. It’s important to show how our activities contribute to measurable benefits in environmental quality.

We are working towards having an increasingly consistent approach to regulation, but this still needs to take account of local ad industry specific issues. A uniform approach is not possible, nor desirable.