Three Year Corporate Plan April 2005

The main regulatory regimes are the Control of Pollution Act, the Control of Major Accidents Hazards Regulations, Environmental Protection Act, Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations, Radioactive Substances Act, the Water Environment and Water Services Act, the Producer Responsibility Obligations Regulations and the Groundwater Regulations.

The Control of Pollution Act 1974 controls discharges of potentially polluting substances to controlled waters through a licensing procedure. Consents may contain conditions imposing limits on both the quality and quantity of effluent discharged.

The Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1999 applies to certain industrial establishments. These regulations strengthen controls in respect of the environmental impact of major accidents. Their main aim is to prevent and mitigate the effects of major accidents involving dangerous substances, such as chlorine or liquefied petroleum gas which can cause serious damage or harm to people or irreversible damage to the environment.

In Scotland, the regulations are enforced by a joint competent authority, consisting of the Health and Safety Executive and SEPA.

Environmental Protection Act 1990 Part I. SEPA regulates Scotland’s most potentially polluting and complex industrial processes under Part A (Integrated Pollution Control) and Part B (Air Pollution Control) of this Act. The Pollution Prevention and Control Act 1999 is replacing these with a new Pollution Prevention and Control regime (see next paragraph). The Local Air Pollution Control regime is a system of local air pollution control for smaller industrial processes introduced under Part 1 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

The Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2000 require processes currently under Integrated Pollution Control to be phased into this regime by the end of 2006. As well as considering existing emissions to land, air and water, the regime also covers noise and vibration, site restoration, accident prevention, waste minimisation and energy efficiency. It will also apply to a wider range of industrial activities, including most landfill and some waste treatment facilities (transferred from the Waste Management Licensing regime). Air Pollution Control processes are being phased into this regime as part of the four yearly review.

Environmental Protection Act 1990 Part II (Waste Management). SEPA enforces a wide range of statutory provisions to ensure that waste is not treated, kept or disposed of in a way that is likely to cause pollution of the environment or be harmful to human health, including carriage of waste. It does this through the licensing regime which requires waste management activities to be undertaken in accordance with either a licence or an exemption.

Environmental Protection Act 1990 Part IIA (Contaminated Land). The Regulations and Guidance are concerned with identifying and remediating contaminated land, mainly aimed at dealing with the legacy of land contaminated by, for example, past industrial, mining and waste disposal activities. Local authorities are responsible for identifying such land. SEPA is responsible for ensuring that certain types of contaminated land designated as special sites are remediated, including taking appropriate action against obligated parties.

Radioactive Substances Act 1993. SEPA is responsible for regulating disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear sites and other premises such as industrial, hospital and research premises. SEPA also regulates the keeping and use of radioactive material. The regulation of disposal of radioactive waste, from licensed facilities is undertaken by specialist SEPA staff.

The Water Environment and Water Services Act 2003. Implementation of the Act will bring a single coherent approach to protecting the whole water environment that incorporates water quality (pollution), water quantity (abstractions and flow regulation) and habitat quality (river engineering and agricultural practice). The Act will replace several existing directives.

The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997. These Regulations aim to implement the EC Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste (94/62/EC) and to reduce the amount of such waste going to landfill. SEPA enforces compliance with the obligations on producers or compliance schemes of which they are members, with a view to ensuring that all obligated parties are registered with SEPA, and that reasonable steps are taken to meet recovery and recycling targets.

Groundwater Regulations 1998. These Regulations bring about full implementation of the Groundwater Directive by dealing with activities not dealt with under other regimes, such as the activities not controlled by a waste management license. The Directive prohibits the direct or indirect discharge into groundwater of List I substances and limits discharges of List II substances so as to avoid pollution. Most commonly these are the disposal of sheep dip and waste agrochemicals to land. As well as detailing the chemicals to be disposed, suitable disposal sites must also be selected so that harm to the environment is minimised.

As new legislation is introduced, SEPA will begin preparatory work such as procedure and guidance development, staff training, database and charging scheme development. SEPA’s website has more information on environmental regulations at www.sepa.org.uk/regulation.

Workload Planning

In licensing and monitoring regulated activities SEPA analyses tens of thousands of samples, undertakes thousands of inspections and processes hundreds of applications each year. Assumptions are made prior to each operating year regarding the volume of activity expected for each regulatory regime. The actual work volumes carried out and reported are dependent on the subsequent development of detailed work programmes and will vary from the initial assumptions. The anticipated volume and the distribution of regulatory effort are illustrated by the following table and are based on 2004/05 workload.