Developing a new Compliance Assessment Scheme for SEPA

SEPA is developing a new scheme to assess compliance with a wide range of environmental authorisations, for implementation during 2009. The proposed new scheme will apply to the following regulatory regimes: Prevention Pollution and Control (PPC), Controlled Activity Regulations (CAR), Radioactive Substances Act (RSA) and Waste Management Licensing and will replace the current Operator Performance Assessments (OPA).

SEPA presented draft proposals at a workshop held on 7th May 2008 in Edinburgh to allow early discussion with customers. Over 80 licence holders and trade associations who hold environmental licences or have an interest in regulatory compliance attended the workshop, participated in breakout groups and provided useful comments and queries. Issues raised during the workshop are helping to shape the subsequent formal public consultation on the new compliance assessment scheme, due to be published in July 2008.

The final agenda for the compliance assessment workshop held on the 7th May is available, as well as a briefing paper for Stakeholders. A list of delegates who attended the workshop is available here.

The presentations and draft assessment sheets from the breakout group spreadsheets from the workshop are now available (please note that some Excel spreadsheets print better in A3 portrait). Please note that all of these documents are draft proposals for information and comment only.

• Context, timetable and implementation
  
• Compliance assessment framework – an introduction
  
• PPC breakout group: PPC presentation, draft PPC guidance, chemical plant example, dry cleaner example
  
• Waste breakout group: landfill example, WML example
  
• CAR point source breakout group: CAR PS presentation, draft trade and sewage effluent guidance, sewage work example
  
• CAR water resources: CAR WR presentation, draft water resources guidance, abstraction example
  
• Radioactive substances: draft guidance for registrations and authorisations, registration example, authorisation example
  

SEPA is also inviting operators to volunteer for trials of the draft scheme during summer 2008. A presentation about how the trials will be organised was made at the workshop on 7 May 2008. If you are a licence or permit holder interested in participating in the trials, please contact SepaComplianceProject@sepa.org.uk

Please contact SepaComplianceProject@sepa.org.uk for any further information or comments. The public consultation will be made available on this webpage from mid-July, however please also contact SEPA with your postal address if you would prefer to be sent a hard copy.