About us
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is Scotland’s
environmental regulator. Our main role is to protect and improve
the environment. We do this by being an excellent
environmental regulator, helping business and industry to
understand their environmental responsibilities, enabling customers
to comply with legislation and good practice and to realise the
many economic benefits of good environmental practice. We protect
communities by regulating activities that can cause harmful
pollution and by monitoring the quality of Scotland's air, land and
water. The regulations we implement also cover the keeping and
use, and the accumulation and disposal, of radioactive
substances.
SEPA is a non-departmental public body, accountable through
Scottish Ministers to the Scottish Parliament. SEPA has been
advising Scottish ministers, regulated businesses, industry and the
public on environmental best practice for over a decade.
We protect the environment and human health through the
work of our 1,300 employees who cover a range of specialist areas
including chemistry, ecology, environmental regulation, hydrology,
engineering, quality control, planning, communications, business
support and management functions. Our 22 offices enable us
to work across the whole of Scotland from the Highlands and
Islands to the Borders and our corporate office is in
Stirling.
We monitor and report on the state of Scotland's environment and
use that sound scientific understanding to inform our independent
regulation of activities that may affect its quality. We also
publish a wide range of publications and environmental reports.
We are also responsible for delivering Scotland's flood warning
system, helping to implement Scotland's National Waste Strategy and
controlling, with the Health and Safety Executive, the risk of
major accidents at industrial sites.