Guidance on complying with the amended environmental impact assessment (EIA) regulations has been published by IEMA, to coincide with the European laws coming into force in the UK.
The EIA Directive was amended in 2014, with member states required to transpose it into national legislation by today. The revised directive places greater emphasis on challenges that have emerged since the original rules came into force around 25 years ago, such as resource efficiency, climate change, human health and disaster prevention.
There are also new requirements on monitoring and enforcement, and a requirement for the developer to employ competent experts and demonstrate this in documentation alongside the environmental statement.
The regulations were laid in Parliament at the end of last month, just before the pre-election purdah period.
IEMA has worked with consultancy Arup on guidance to help practitioners assess greenhouse-gas emissions and their significance. It also collaborated with Ben Cave Associates and the Faculty of Public Health on guidance on health in EIA.
Josh Fothergill, policy lead at IEMA, said: ‘Today is a significant point for EIA professionals. It marks the culmination of a great deal of reflection and review by practitioners, where they have needed to make some noise to achieve the right outcome, particularly around the definition of “competent experts”.’
Policy and practice can effectively realign, now that the amendments have become law, he added.
The guidance is available here.
The amended EIA regulations are available here.