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  • Class 3: How we take decisions

Class 3: How we take decisions

Here you will find information about the decisions we take, how we make decisions and how we involve others.

Decisions taken by SEPA

Legally, the Agency Board constitutes SEPA. The members of the board are appointed by the Scottish Ministers and, as well as appointing the Chairman of SEPA, the Scottish Ministers appoint a member as Deputy Chairman. The Chairman is personally responsible to Scottish Ministers. The board has responsibility for ensuring that SEPA fulfils the aims and objectives set by the Scottish Ministers and membership of the board includes a Chief Executive to whom is delegated the day-to-day management of SEPA. SEPA's Agency Board meets six times per year. Meeting agendas and papers are uploaded to the SEPA website. Recent minutes of meetings are uploaded once they have been approved.

Please note that items of business dealt with at Board Strategy meetings are on occasion confidential and therefore members of the public cannot attend these meetings. Requests for copies of reports considered with the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) 2002, and taking into consideration issues of confidentiality, copyright and data protection.

Public consultations and engagement strategies

SEPA consults with external stakeholders on proposed policies, strategies, charging schemes and applications. Consultations are available via the SEPA website, in addition to the required advertisement or publication under specific statutory requirements. SEPA also responds to consultations from external bodies. The responses are available on request by emailing consult@sepa.org.uk.

Reports of regulatory inspections, audits and investigations

The Performance Assessment Scheme applied across all regulatory regimes. SEPA undertakes inspections and audits of licenced sites as part of its regulatory function. Such reports may be held on the public register with the records for the site.

Environmental Impact Assessment Reports

SEPA does not undertake Environmental Impact Assessment Reports in accordance with the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017.