Consultation on the implementation of the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018 for radioactive substances activities

Overview

The Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations (EASR) came in to force in 2018 for radioactive substances activities and replaced the Radioactive Substances Act 1993 (RSA).

During the development of EASR, the Scottish Government and SEPA held several consultations on the Integrated Authorisation Framework for:

• environmental activities;
• the draft regulations and associated guidance;
• charging scheme;
• standard conditions for radioactive substances activities. 

These consultations set out the reasons for the proposed changes in legislation, how radioactive substances activities would be regulated and any benefits that these changes might introduce. 

As well as the formal consultations, a variety of other stakeholder engagement events were held on the proposals, such as workshops with operators to develop standard conditions, presentations to interested stakeholder groups and updates at stakeholder meetings.

Now that the regulations have been in force for more than four years, we want to consult you on our implementation of EASR to assess if it has brought the benefits we anticipated and if there are any improvements that we can make.

We are asking some specific questions, as well as some more general questions to seek your views on our implementation of EASR.

We appreciate that EASR has only applied offshore since November 2021, so it may be difficult for those that only carry on radioactive substances activities offshore to comment at this stage, but we still welcome any views that you have.

Why your views matter

This consultation is aimed at seeking your views on the way we have implemented EASR for radioactive substances activities.

It is separate from a consultation that the Scottish Government and SEPA are planning to carry out in early 2023, on proposals to bring the regulation of other environmental activities into EASR.

The consultation briefly outlines some of the changes that were brought in by EASR, how we have implemented it, and the questions that we are asking you.