The Scottish Government

1 At the scoping stage the Responsible Authority must provide sufficient information to allow the Consultation Authorities to form a view on relationships with other relevant plans, programmes and Strategies ( PPS) and environmental protection objectives and how they inform the level and scope of the Environmental Report (Section 15 and Schedule 3 of the Act).

2 The discussion of environmental protection objectives must consider objectives established at International, Community or Member State level that are relevant to the PPS. This could include details regarding where an authority has international-level environmental designations ( e.g.SAC, SPA, Ramsar).

3 A list such as table 1 below will usually suffice at this stage. However, it is helpful if further information can be provided as in table 2 below or table 3 from the Environmental Report template.

4 The practical guide to the SEA Directive ( ODPM et al, September 2005) provides useful information on relationships with other PPS and environmental protection objectives

NOTE- list PPS to be analysed

1 At the scoping stage, the Responsible Authority should send the Consultation Authorities sufficient information to form a view on the scope and level of detail of the data that the Responsible Authority has or intend to gather in respect of the relevant aspects of the current state of the environment (Schedule 3 para. 2 and Section 15 of the Act), i.e. the environmental baseline.

2 A description of the following will be required for the Environmental Report stage and it will therefore be useful to describe in the Scoping Report how these will be addressed in the Environmental Report (Schedule 3 paragraphs 3&4 of the Act):

v relevant aspects of the current state of the environment;

v the likely evolution of the environmental baseline without implementation of the PPS;

v where available, environmental characteristics of those areas that are likely to be significantly affected ( e.g. likely sites for mineral workings, new housing, transport infrastructure).

3 It may also be useful to consider targets, trends and status of resource at this point as these will feature later in the Environmental Report and monitoring stages of SEA.

4 A simple, but comprehensive list of the data sources and data that the Responsible Authority intends to gather in relation to the environmental issues listed at Schedule 3 of the Act would suffice. For instance, in relation to the historic environment, Historic Scotland may expect to see a stated intention to collect and analyse data on: Scheduled monuments; listed buildings; gardens and designed landscapes; conservation areas; protected wrecks and underwater archaeology; historic landscapes/townscapes and archealogical sites, where this information will be used in the assessment.

1 At the scoping stage, the Responsible Authority is required to provide sufficient information to allow the Consultation Authorities to form a view on the scope and level of detail to be included in the Environmental Report.

2 Where information on environmental problems is available at the scoping stage, the Responsible Authority may wish to include it in the Scoping Report

3 The Responsible Authority may find it useful to prepare this section of the scoping template in discussion with other stakeholders.

4 The SEA Practical Guide gives advice on how problems can be identified.

5 A tabular format, which may be used for this section, is offered below at table 3.

NOTE
e.g. large numbers of cars on school run

School journey mode in district X 45% foot, 32% car, 12% public transport; compared with 40%, 30%, 17% nationally (source: X local residents survey, 2005).

One-third of peak time traffic is school related (Local Residents' Survey, 2004).

Increase emphasis on school travel plans, Safe Routes to School and other ways of reducing car journeys to school.

1 Section 14(2) of the Act provides that the Environmental Report shall identify, describe and evaluate the likely significant effects on the environment of the PPS and its reasonable alternatives. Therefore, where this information is available it is useful to set out the proposed alternatives to be considered. This will also help to set the context for scoping ( i.e. scoping of SEA issues and framework for assessment of environmental effects).

2 Further guidance on alternatives is available in:

• The SEA Practical Guide;
• Chapter 9 of the Tool Kit;
• The European Commission (2003) Implementation of Directive 2001/42 on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment also provides guidance.

1 It may be possible at this stage to scope out certain SEA issues if it can be demonstrated that there are no likely significant environmental effects. It should be noted, however, that it may not be possible to include this section in the scoping report as it may be too early in the PPS making process to meaningfully scope SEA issues in or out.

2 If it is possible for the Responsible Authority to scope certain SEA issues out, they must provide sufficient information for the Consultation Authorities to form a view on this matter.

3 The criteria at Schedule 2 of the Act must be applied when determining significance and the issues in Schedule 3 must be addressed.

4 Posing questions can be a useful aid to considering the likely significance of environmental effects. For example: will the PPS protect, enhance, minimise, improve, reduce, harm, maintain various aspects of the SEA topics such as endangered species (flora/fauna/biodiversity); emissions of pollutants harmful to human health.

5 The Responsible Authority may find Table 4 a useful way of presenting this section of their scoping report if they decide to include it.

biodiversity, flora, fauna

population

human health

soil

water

air

climatic factors

material assets

cultural heritage (inc architectural and archaeological heritage)

landscape

1 The Responsible Authority is requested to provide sufficient information on the proposed methods for the assessment of environmental effects to allow the Consultation Authorities to form a view on this matter.

2 The method of assessment must include an analysis of short, medium and long-term effects; permanent and temporary effects; positive and negative effects; and secondary, cumulative and synergistic effects (Schedule 3 of the Act). Further guidance is available in the Scottish Executive SEA Tool Kit (Chapter 5 of the Tool Kit).

3 There is a range of assessment methods and typically the Responsible Authority will select the one which best suits the nature of their PPS. For instance, SEA objectives may be used as a means by which the environmental effects of the PPS can be assessed. Alternatively the assessment might be performed by assessing the PPS proposals (and alternatives) against the issues in Schedule 3(6) of the Act.

4 Some examples of tables that might assist with the presentation of the latter assessment method are given in Appendix A to these templates.

1 At the scoping stage the Responsible Authority must provide sufficient information to allow the Consultation Authorities to form a view on the consultation periods proposed for the Consultation Authorities and the public (Section 15(1)(b) of the Act).

2 Consultation periods must give the Consultation Authorities and the public an early and effective opportunity to express their opinions on the PPS and the accompanying Environmental Report (Section 15(4) of the Act).

3 Note that, if the PPS is likely to have significant environmental effects on another EU Member State then consultation may be required under Regulation 14 of the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004 (the UK Regulations). Responsible Authorities who believe they have such a case are advised to contact the Scottish Executive SEA Gateway for advice before proceeding.

4 The Responsible Authority may also find it useful to set out its proposed consultation methods and activities in the scoping report.

1. While it is not a statutory requirement, it may be useful to include here a simple list of milestone activities and dates, for example:

• Proposed publication date for the Environmental Report
• Proposed consultation periods and PPS milestones ( e.g. anticipated adoption date)

1 It is not a statutory requirement, however, on receipt of comments arising from scoping, the Responsible Authority may find it useful to prepare a summary record of the outcome and any associated action. This will help to ensure transparency and provide a comprehensive record.

2 A summary record of the scoping outcomes may include comments from the Consultation Authorities and others and any action that arose, along with specific changes that were made ( e.g. to the consultation period).

1 A key purpose of scoping is to set out sufficient details about the proposed methodological framework for assessment of environmental effects to allow the Consultation Authorities to form a view on this matter. The Responsible Authority should provide an explanation of the method/sources of expertise.

2 If the Responsible Authority selects the assessment method whereby the plan policies/proposals and alternatives are assessed against the SEA issues at Schedule 3 of the Act, they may find one of the following tables to be a useful presentation method.

3 See Chapter 11 of the Tool Kit for an example of an assessment framework for effects on human health.

This table is completed using the symbols in the key below. This approach gives a quick overview of the PPS, and is thus good for non-technical summaries. However it does not comprehensively cover short, medium, long term; permanent, temporary; secondary, cumulative, synergistic effects and to cover these additional notes are required in the comments box.

Notes:
[insert any brief additional notes here]

This approach is effective in clarifying why some alternatives are not being considered. However it has the same limitations as Option 1.

This approach provides more detail regarding characteristics of environmental effects (Schedule 2 of the Act). Because it is more comprehensive it necessarily takes longer to complete and lengthens the scoping report. The cells could be filled in with symbols or text.

This option is very comprehensive. You may need to fit more than one symbol in a box, e.g. v LT = significant positive environmental effects, long term