Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Services

• Scoping Services
• Environmental Statement Reviews

Scoping Services

Scoping is the process of identifying the issues to be addressed by an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). It is a method of ensuring that an EIA focuses on the important issues and avoids those that are considered to be less significant.

Our services aim to provide sufficient information to support the discussions between LPAs, consultants and developers and deliver a transparent scope that all parties sign up to.

Scoping Opinion Service

We would advise on the range of topics that should be addressed by the EIA and produce a Scoping report. For an LPA this could be used as a scoping opinion. As part of a robust process the report would also include advice on the following:

• the methods used to assess impacts,
• available guidance
• consultation,
• how information is presented within an Environmental Statement.

Review of the Scoping Report

This service is of value to LPAs who wish to prepare a Scoping Opinion themselves but require advice on the content of that opinion based upon the Scoping Report submitted. Our review would include recommendations on where further information is necessary or would be useful to enable the LPA to adopt a scoping opinion.

Process Reviews

This review does not look at the specific impacts of the development proposal, it looks at the process that is to be or has been followed in carrying out an EIA. A Process Review can be carried out at any point in the EIA process, however the most appropriate time would be at the beginning of the EIA as soon as the process has been defined.

The benefit of carrying out the review at this stage means that the process can be strengthened improving its robustness and having a direct effect on the quality of the ES.

The purpose of a process review is to compare the proposed process with principles and activities considered to be consistent with international good practice. It does not examine outcomes from the process to determine whether appropriate conclusions have been reached or decisions made. It seeks to answer whether the process is reasonable, given the circumstances, to reach an appropriate conclusion, rather than whether the conclusions are correct or acceptable.

The review can be primarily based on information provided by the developer and their EIA team, however, good practice dictates that the views of other participants in the process such as the local community and statutory consultees should be incorporated also. This contributes to the process meeting stakeholder expectations as well as good practice standards.

Environmental Statement Reviews

We offer a range of services designed to help LPA’s and consultants identify gaps in the environmental information that has been, or is to be, submitted as part of a planning application. We can review the information contained within the ES and provide advice on what additional information is necessary to allow a decision to be made on the application. The services we offer include:

• A Good Practice Review
• An Issue Specific Review
• A Panel Review

Good Practice Review

This is the most popular review service we offer. Whilst a review is not a legal requirement in the UK it is considered good practice and offers significant benefits by:

• demonstrating the importance of the environmental impacts to the decision
• supporting the independence of the decision making process
• providing an external ‘stamp of approval’ on the quality of the ES
• releasing LPA time
• reducing the risk of legal challenge.

Drawing on our experience of over 1000 reviews, this service will provide you with an impartial opinion on the quality of the ES. It will evaluate the information provided within the ES identifying any areas where further information should be requested. The review will look specifically at the:

• description of the development and the site • scoping process
• discussion of alternatives
• assessment of impacts
• proposed mitigation measures.

The ES is reviewed against our criteria which are regularly updated to ensure that they reflect current good practice in EIA.

  Review Criteria.pdf (46.74 KB)

Issue Specific Review

Certain development types are associated with particular environmental impacts:

• windfarms with landscape and visual
• incinerators with air quality
• brownfield site developments with contaminated land

If a particular issue raises concern, experts can be sourced from our extensive membership database to focus solely on this issue. This review can either be tied in with a Good Practice Review of the ES or be undertaken independently.

Panel Review

This service is essentially an extension to the Issue Specific Review service described above combined with the Good Practice Review. The IEMA can co-ordinate a panel of experts appropriate to the proposal who will review the ES and provide their expert opinion.

Enquiries

For further details and enquiries please contact the IEMA's Technical Team at: