UKEN Policy Checklist - Environmental Impact Assessments.

Environmental Impact Assessment regulations were amended in 1999 to incorporate the EU Directive of 1997. Projects with a Schedule One classification are obliged to have an EIA. Schedule 2 projects may require an EIA where there may be "significant" environmental impacts and guidance sets out

EIAs now have to be undertaken for a wider range of projects including waste water treatment plants, water abstraction, waste disposal sites for handling hazardous wastes through incineration, landfill or chemical treatment and waste disposal plants for handling non-hazardous wastes where the capacity is greater than 100 tonnes per day. Oil and gas extraction plants and quarries and open-cast mines will also require EIAs.

From October 2000 changes were made to the 1992 Transport and Works Act which will assist developers of new rail and public transport infrastructure. Procedures will be simplified and companies will be able to request the Secretary of State for the Environment to instruct them on the scope of an EIA.

The European Union Directive on Strategic Environmental Assessments will come into operation in July 2004. It will require local authorities to ensure that SEAs are conducted on all land proposed for development in local plans.

WSSD Implementation Plan 2002 (Article 119) agreed to "develop and promote the wider application of environmental impact assessments, inter alia, as a national instrument, as appropriate, to provide essential decision-support information on projects that could cause significant adverse effects to the environment".

UKEN Policy Checklist - Environmental Liability

Draft Directive on Environmental Liability received first reading in European Parliament, May 2003. This will require companies to take out insurance against any damage to the environment under the "polluter pays" principle, even where a process has received a permit. UK and French Governments have expressed concerns that current provisions on compulsory insurance could result in less competitive EU industry, especially if applied to marine and nuclear pollution.

It is thought unlikely that a defence that a company has complied with environmental regulations and permits even though damage has been caused will be acceptable. Likewise a "state of the art defence", that a company's activities were not thought to be damaging to the environment is unlikely to be accepted.

This will be discussed by Council of Ministers in June.

The Environment Agency will have responsibility for enforcement in England.

UK contaminated land regime sets out liability of parties under 1995 Environment Act.

Copyright UK Environment News Ltd - Vol 7, Issue 4, June 2003. Tel 020 7351 3954. UK Environment News cannot accept any incidental or consequential liability for information carried in this article.