Skip to main content

How we work

Good environmental practices can lead to economic benefits for business and for Scotland.

To support this, we’ve established multi-disciplinary and specialist teams to help us achieve our ambitious vision for Scotland’s environment.

We employ around 1300 people across Scotland in a wide variety of roles, from scientists and regulators to administration officers and accountants, who all contribute to achieving our objectives and the national outcomes set by the Scottish Government. The framework within which SEPA operates, and our key roles and responsibilities which underpin the relationship between SEPA and the Scottish Government is available for the public to view.

More information about our corporate objectives is available in our Corporate Plan and Annual Operating Plan, both of which are included on our performance page.

Working across a number of departments, teams, specialisms and locations, our people work hard to ensure that the right skills, knowledge and experience are in place to provide world class environmental protection for Scotland.

To find out about working for us, visit our jobs section for details of current vacancies.

Our Service Charter

We will be:

  • Courteous - dealing with you with courtesy and integrity at all times
  • Accessible - we will make it easy for you to access our services and information
  • Understanding - we will try to understand your business needs so as to appreciate issues from your perspective
  • Good partners - we will work with you to help you protect and improve the environment 
  • Constantly improving - we will regularly review our performance, listening to and learning from you
  • Accurate - we will strive to get it right first time and will act promptly
  • Good communicators - we will express ourselves simply, clearly and within agreed timescales
  • Fair - we will apply the law fairly and consistently and provide a proportionate enforcement response
  • Competent - our staff will be well-trained and equipped with the right knowledge and skills
  • Secure - we will protect the privileged information we hold
  • Expert - we will be an influential and respected source of environmental data information

We rely on the people of Scotland to engage with us - as customers and partners of SEPA, you too can play your part and help us achieve our aims. Please contact us if we have provided a good service; if we have fallen short of your expectations; or to suggest improvements we should make. 

Regenerative SEPA

The imperative to act to reduce our impacts on the planet has never been more urgent. Through our regulatory work, we encourage businesses to reduce their environmental emissions and impacts and move beyond compliance. We must do the same by reducing the environmental impacts and move beyond compliance. We must do the same by reducing the environmental impacts of delivering our regulatory work and other services.

We have a goal to become a regenerative (better than net zero) organisation by 2030. We will have achieved this when our emissions or impacts have been reduced as far as possible and when the positive effects of our actions to repair the environment are deemed to exceed any residual adverse impacts.

View our Regenerative SEPA routemap 2022-2024 to see targets we've set ourselves.