New scheme for assessing water licence compliance

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is looking to streamline its method for assessing compliance and is urging, amongst others, operators of fish farms to comment on its consultation. The watchdog has identified that improvements to its approach to assessing compliance with its licences will lead to more effective, transparent and efficient regulation. It is proposed to phase-in the new scheme from 1 January 2009. Colin Bayes, Director of Environmental Protection and Improvement, said: “SEPA aims to be an excellent environmental regulator, enabling business to understand their environmental responsibilities, to comply with the regulations and to realise the many economic benefits of good environmental practice and performance. “The new scheme is about SEPA streamlining compliance with licence conditions; it’s not about asking industry and other waters users to provide additional data or increase reporting effort. The new scheme will be targeted, efficient and effective. It will help us to deliver the desired environmental outcomes by working directly with licence holders. Public scrutiny of the published compliance results, along with potential financial incentives, is intended to encourage better environmental performance.