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

As Scotland’s principal environmental regulator, we regulate activities that could lead to pollution or environmental harm. The relevant environmental requirements are set out in legislation. Certain activities simply require compliance with the legislation. Some activities require specific authorisation before they can be carried out lawfully. Every activity we authorise is subject to conditions that must be complied with by the relevant authorised person, business or organisation (we call these people or organisations “operators”). Conditions relate to a variety of requirements, for example, specific emission limits, providing us with information or managing activities in a way to prevent harm. Non-compliance with a condition doesn’t always cause environmental harm but increases the risk that harm could be caused or not detected. 

For activities that fall within our regulatory remit, we verify compliance on a risk-basis. We use a range of tools to ensure operators resolve any non-compliance identified. This ranges from providing advice and guidance, issuing warning letters and civil sanctions, through to reporting to the procurator fiscal for more serious offences. 

Our new Environmental Performance Assessment Scheme (EPAS) will support our approach to regulation and provide us with a common standard to rate an operator’s environmental performance and secure improvements in compliance. An environmental performance rating will have no relationship to any decision we take on whether to take enforcement action where legal requirements have not been met. 

EPAS will make it easy for everyone to understand how the businesses and organisations that we regulate are performing. We have decided to use performance rather than compliance based on feedback received in our 2017 consultation. Compliance is binary, you are either compliant or not, environmental performance reflects how you avoid becoming non-compliant or how you resolve non-compliance if it occurs. 

EPAS has been designed to drive quick action to resolve issues that do or could cause environmental harm. The scheme will be very responsive, reporting on a continuous basis following compliance checks or evidence of environmental harm. This will help everyone to stay informed about who takes their legal environmental responsibilities seriously. 

EPAS has been developed in line with the Scottish regulators’ strategic code of practice and in accordance with the following project principles: 

• Fair and consistent. 

• Simple and understandable. 

• Efficient and automated where practicable. 

To achieve continuous reporting, we intend to develop new digital systems that deliver efficiencies for everyone. These will allow quick transfer of information between us, operators and those interested in environmental performance.