Environmental Performance Assessment Scheme (EPAS) - a fair way to report performance​ 

Section 12.1: What information will be available on our website?

To be as open and transparent as possible, we plan to put as much information about EPAS as possible into the public domain. Annually, we receive numerous requests for compliance information and to ensure best value for public finance, it is more efficient to make it fully accessible from the outset (other than where there are legal reasons why information cannot be published). 

Generally, compliance verification reports will be made available on our Public Register. We will also show the current and previous compliance categories as we have described in section 6.3. We will make clear to all users that whilst this basic compliance information informs the environmental performance rating, a compliance category is not representative of performance and should not be considered in isolation. It should only be interpreted through a performance lens. 

How and what we communicate will be user led and designed to Digital Scotland Service Standard criteria. However, an example of the kind of information we intend to make available is shown in Figure 17. The environmental performance rating provides the best indication of how an operator is doing from an environmental perspective and is the information that we will use to inform where we direct our regulatory effort. The compliance information is only part of the story but will be included for transparency, alongside links to relevant compliance verification reports held on the public register. 

Figure 17: Example of the kind of information that will be made available for the environmental performance rating. Please note that we will undertake user testing to determine how best to display this information and what should be displayed.

Supporting information that informs environmental performance includes: 

Compliance 

• Current compliance category (Compliant, Non-compliant or Major non-compliant). 

• Previous compliance category (Compliant, Non-compliant or Major non-compliant). 

• Compliance recovery plan in place if applicable (yes or no). 

Time  

• Date that any current compliance issues were identified if not yet resolved (Date of last compliance verification activity where compliance issues are ongoing). 

• Date any compliance issues were resolved (if applicable). 

• Date of last compliance verification activity. 

• Year when next compliance verification is expected (Financial year). 

• Overall number of days an operator has been ‘Non-compliant’ or ‘Major non-compliant’. 

Environmental harm 

• Category 1 or 2 environmental event caused (yes or no). 

Section 12.2: Digital systems

Our long-term vision is to develop a single online platform that allows operators to interact with all aspects of their regulatory journey with us end-to-end. Operators will be able to contact and access all information and guidance on this single platform.  From a compliance perspective operators will be able to upload data returns and other information that is required to be submitted to comply with the conditions attached to an authorisation. It will provide the ability to submit an appeal against the outcome of a compliance verification activity. 

From a compliance and environmental performance perspective we want operators to be able to see their information in real-time and proactively take any required action. 

We are at the early days of developing requirements for this platform, but we want to hear what would most benefit you as a future user of this digital system.