Consultation on draft Standard Conditions for radioactive substances authorisations

Overview

Links to consultation documents are at the bottom of this page.

As part of the Better Environmental Regulation Programme, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) are working together to develop an integrated authorisation framework.  The aim of the framework is to integrate the authorisation, procedural and enforcement arrangements relating to water, waste management, radioactive substances and pollution prevention and control.  The integrated authorisation framework will be developed in a phased manner, starting with radioactive substances; the other regulatory regimes will be added in due course.

A key part of developing an integrated authorisation framework is the introduction of new regulations, the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018 (EA(S)R), which will be made and come in to force later this year.

Under EA(S)R, we need to make Standard Conditions that will be used in permits and registrations.  Standard Conditions are conditions that have been predetermined by us in advance of receiving any application.  They may be specific to a certain type of regulated activity or could apply to any regulated activity.  This is in contrast to bespoke conditions, which are developed on a case-by-case basis taking into account the specific information that is included in an application for a permit.  Registrations can only have Standard Conditions.

The principal objective of this consultation is to seek your views on the proposed Standard Conditions for radioactive substances.  Views are sought on both the technical content and the presentation including style of language used.  This consultation is targeted at people that are currently regulated under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993 or who may carry out a radioactive substances activity in the future.  We also welcome views from any person that has an interest in radioactive substances regulation, for example, other regulators and interested members of the public.

As part of implementing EA(S)R, we have taken the opportunity to review certain aspects of our regulation of radioactive substances.  Consequently, a number of changes are proposed that will be implemented by using Standard Conditions.  We are seeking views on these changes in approach.

This consultation only applies to radioactive substances activities.  No decisions have been made regarding the Standard Conditions that will apply to other regulatory regimes or how such Standard Conditions will be used.  Further consultation will be undertaken when the other regulatory regimes are brought into EA(S)R which may include changes to the radioactive substances Standard Conditions.