Presentation will give you an overview of some recent training on EIA Scoping that

Arcadis were commissioned by Welsh Government to provide to all of the LPAs in Wales.

The objective of the training was to help LPAs prepare more effective, consistent and

proportional EIA Scoping Opinions.

Also consider the importance of proportional EIA and how EIA practitioners can assist in

achieving more proportional EIA.

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So why did Welsh Government commission the training?

IEMA’s research has found that the main text of many ESs is over 350 pages long.

The results of current scoping practice all too often lead to broad assessments that lack

appropriate focus leading to long Environmental Statements that add burdens all parties

involved in EIA.

An effective Environmental Statement (ES) is one whose content is appropriate to the

proposed development and whose length is no longer than that needed to provide the

decision-maker and stakeholders with the EIA’s findings.

So, although this quote refers to applicants, and they and their environmental advisors

have a key role to play in defining the appropriate scope, LPAs have a critical role to play

in achieving more proportionate EIA through the preparation of their scoping opinions.

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This quote from an environmental consultant sums up a key issue with achieving

effective and proportionate scoping opinions.

The aim of EIA is to protect the environment by ensuring that a LPA, when deciding

whether to grant planning permission for a project which is likely to have significant

effects on the environment, does so in the full knowledge of the likely significant effects,

and takes this into account in the decision making process.

The EIA shouldn’t contain every feasible environmental issue under the sun, that is not

it’s point.

Impacts which have little or no significance for the particular development in question

need only very brief treatment in the EIA to indicate that their possible relevance has

been considered.

So again, LPAs need to understand what they should and shouldn't be asking for in their

scoping opinions in order to make the EIA as proportional as possible.

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The process of EIA scoping is unchanged by the 2014 Directive, but the approach to it

may need to alter.

The 2014 Directive requires that the EIA Report (which is what the 2014 EIA Directive

renames Environmental Statements) will have to be based on the scoping opinion. In

addition, there has been a subtle changing to the wording in Article 3 of the EIA

Directive to now require that the EIA should focus on significant impacts.

Effective and proportionate scoping is likely to become even more important than ever,

and there is a real need for local planning officers to have a good understanding of the

scoping process, in particular that the assessment need only focus on the significant

effects.

Scoping change in the new Directive is quite subtle, but it if UK governments don’t

handle the change well when transposing into regulations there is a real risk that

developers may simply avoid formal scoping in the future - to avoid being unduly

constrained by voluntarily tying themselves to a scoping opinion, rather than just having

informal discussions. There is a risk that local authorities may 'scope everything in'

during formal scoping to compensate for a lack of flexibility later. This may increase

project costs to the developer and also the local authority who will review the

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completed ES.

The requirements of the 2014 EIA directive will need to be transposed into UK

regulations by May 2017.

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Welsh Government recognises that EIA has become un-proportional, leading to

Environmental Statements that are huge in size, and which don’t focus on the significant

environmental effects, as required by the Regulations. They also recognise that Scoping

Opinions have a big part to play in achieving more proportional EIA, and that there is a

large variation in the quality of scoping opinions prepared within Wales. The worst

offenders being very generic and unfocused. Consequently, they commissioned Arcadis

to provide training on EIA Scoping to every LPA in Wales.

7 separate training events (grouping shown on slide) held February – May 2016. Full day

training events comprising presentations, discussions and interactive workshops.

Over 100 delegates in total.

Feedback from the LPAs on the training, as well as other concerns and comments LPAs

have on the EIA process, provided to Welsh Government.

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So what should be the objectives of an effective and proportional scoping opinion?

• The Scoping Opinion should focus on the important issues and significant impacts

to be addressed by the EIA;

• It should identify the main stakeholders and their concerns and values;

• It should agree appropriate methods of impact assessment, including survey

methodology where relevant; and

• It should agree the boundaries for an EIA in time, space and subject matter

Last bullet – also identify other relevant projects for cumulative effects assessment.

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In reality however, and this was evident from the feedback we gained from LPAs during

the scoping training, there are several barriers to achieving effective and proportionate

scoping opinions. These can be put into 3 main categories:

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Risk aversion is a key barrier to effective and proportionate scoping opinions and

meeting the requirements of the 2014 EIA Directive.

Risk is leading to a greater focus on quantity of material rather than on quality.

No successful legal challenges relating to the scope/content of the ES and unlikely to be

in future. However LPAs said they had a fear of the appeals process not just legal

challenges.

EIA regulations include the provision for requesting further information, if needed. The

key to avoiding valid requests for further information is to provide adequate justification

of why issues are scoped out / down.

Also consultees often don’t appreciate fully that EIA needs to focus on the significant

impacts – do consultees need training on EIA Scoping?

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The table (from Glasson et al., 2006) clearly illustrates LPA concerns about the lack of

resources to undertake the tasks involved. It’s worth recognising that LPAS cant charge a

fee for providing a formal scoping opinion under the EIA Regulations, unlike other pre-

application advice.

However, what we tried to stress during the training is that LPAs need to recognise that

investing in scoping to produce higher quality scoping opinions can save significant time

and money ‘downstream’ in the EIA process. In particular through the reduction in

assessment work that they will be required to review during determination.

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With 5 weeks to produce a scoping opinion time constraints are a common issue for

LPAs. Common complaint is slow response times of consultees. Without very good

time management and provision of consultation responses in good time, the LPA doesn’t

leave itself adequate time to fully consider the views of the consultee, and challenge

whether they are valid or not. Often there may be conflicting advice from different

consultees as to the scope of the EIA, and pressures of time can result in the ‘scope in’

view being included for the sake of risk aversion.

Identifying relevant consultees for the project proposal and location is key.

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Focussing scoping on likely significant effects will be even more important after May

2017 due to the amendments to the wording in Article 3 of the EIA Directive which says

that the EIA should focus on significant impacts.

To achieve more proportionate EIA Scoping Opinions case officers need to have a

greater understanding of and consideration for impact significance.

LP officers can be expected to be experts in EIA and determining impact significance,

however they are required to consider and sometimes interpret consultee responses,

some of which often don’t focus on the significant effects. It is more important than

ever that EIA practitioners correctly consider impact significance during scoping, and

fully justify their decisions to scope issues in or out, or scope things down.

During our scoping training course we gave local planning officers the knowledge to

understand the proposed reasoning for scoping issues in and out, and the confidence to

question recommendations made by the applicant, their applicant’s environmental

advisors, and the consultees.

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In addition to the knowledge gained from the day itself, we prepared a Scoping Opinion

Checklist to be used as an aid memoire when preparing a Scoping Opinion.

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Just some of the ways that EIA Practitioners can assist in achieving more proportional

EIA.

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