SEA in Scotland

1
SEA in Scotland

• Jon Rathjen
• SEA Bill Team Leader
• Scottish Executive

2
Scotland as a Region/Country

• Region of UK, which is EU member state
• UK government handles constitution, defence,
  foreign affairs, etc
• Scotland has own parliament, legal system and
  devolved government - powers over health,
  education, justice, environment etc.
• We implement Directives in devolved areas

3
Scottish Executive Partnership Agreement

• We will legislate to introduce
• Strategic Environmental Assessment
• To ensure that the full environmental impacts of
  all new strategies, programmes and plans
  developed by the public sector are properly
  considered.

4
SEA is about

• SEA is about improving plan development
• SEA is about fewer unforeseen environmental
  impacts
• SEA is about improving consultation
• Sea is about making decisions with clearer and
  better environmental outcomes

5
SEA Progress in Scotland

• Scottish Executive SEA progress to date
• Regulations will quickly be followed by a Bill

6
Implications

• Strategies' included Policies?
• All plans and programmes - no 'setting framework
  for development consent'
• No 'legislative, regulatory or administrative'
  test
• Need to keep at a strategic level

7
The SEA Process in Scotland

• Statutory Consultation bodies Scottish Natural
  Heritage, Scottish Environment Protection Agency
  and Historic Scotland.
• Screening/Scoping/Reporting/Consulting

8
Scotland and ENPLAN

• Comparison and exchange
• Awareness Raising

9
Conclusion

• SEA if applied early in the process can greatly
  improve plan development
• SEA in Scotland will attempt to apply that
  improvement across all public sector plan and
  policy development