Regulation

SEPA uses regulation to protect and improve the environment. SEPA is responsible for issuing environmental licences and permits across a wide variety of activities. The conditions of licences and permits are set to minimise harm to human health and the environment. SEPA monitors compliance with these conditions and takes action to improve areas of non-compliance.

We have developed measures of compliance across a range of activities and we are working to extend this approach where possible. Our success at regulating is measured by the percentage of operators who comply with their licence conditions. Based on past performance, challenging targets have been set on the levels of operator compliance and operator performance at authorised installations, which SEPA aims to maintain and improve:

• Control of Pollution Act/Controlled Activities Regulations 94%¹

• Integrated Pollution Control and Air Pollution Control 92%

• Waste Management Licences 90%

• No member of the public to receive radiation doses above dose limits²

The different levels of compliance targets reflect the different nature of the processes which are regulated. Licences are reviewed periodically and conditions are tightened, as appropriate, to progressively reduce harmful pollutants. Throughout this process consideration is given to the best available techniques to minimise environmental impact.

SEPA views the maintenance of these compliance targets as a challenge. Control of Pollution Act compliance is already set at a demanding level. SEPA reports against the different types of discharge to water (public sewage, private sewage, trade effluent (from business) and other matter). Under the Water Environment and Water Services Act, the Control of Pollution Act will be replaced with Controlled Activities Regulations on 1 April 2006 at which point targets for non-point source discharges (e.g. engineering, diffuse, abstraction and impoundment) will be considered.

Operators regulated under Integrated Pollution Control and Air Pollution Control are transferring to a new regime, Pollution Prevention and Control, which also covers sectors that were not previously regulated. The regulation of these sectors is being phased in between 2001 and 2007. Stringent new standards for waste are being introduced in managing end-of-life vehicles, dealing with electrical and electronic waste and in new types of special waste.

SEPA carries out a comprehensive environmental monitoring programme to check compliance with the Radioactive Substances Act. We are developing further compliance methods for the Radioactive Substances Act, which will be complete by 2006.

To determine the frequency of inspection or sampling, the risk to the environment is assessed. This allows all licences and permits to be kept under systematic review and varied as required. In the case of nuclear licensed sites a full review will also be undertaken at least every five years.

Further information on the main regulatory regimes that we enforce and an estimate of workload can be found in Annex A. 

The following charts illustrate SEPA’s past performance and future goals. All charts display the most up-to-date data. 2004/05 compliance data was not available at the time of going to print. 

Licence compliance: Control of Pollution Act/Controlled Activities Regulations

Note on above chart: SEPA sets two levels of standards in its licences against which it measures performance, namely a rolling 12 month compliance standard and an instantaneous one. The new compliance target will be based on the rolling 12 month compliance assessment to give direct comparability to the performance in England and Wales. To ensure transparency SEPA will publish both the rolling 12 month compliance and the combined (instantaneous and 12 month rolling) which was used for reporting previously.

Satisfactory operator performance: Waste Management Licence

Satisfactory operator performance: Integrated Pollution Control

Note on above chart: A target for 2007/08 is not included as, by then, the Integrated Pollution Control regime will have been completely replaced by the Pollution Prevention and Control (Part A) regime. Targets for the new regime have still to be developed. 

Satisfactory operator performance: Air Pollution Control/Pollution Prevention and Control part B

1 Control of Pollution Act will be replaced by Controlled Activities Regulations on 1 April 2006. Compliance is measured on calendar year and the target is increasing to 95% by 2006.

2 The dose limits are set out in Article 13 of the (96/29/Euratom) Basic Safety Standards (subject to the exclusions set out in Article 6(4))