The legislation around the EIA of development projects in the UK implements EU legislation. The European Union has established a mix of mandatory and discretionary procedures to assess environmental impacts. European Union Directive (85/337/EEC) on Environmental Impact Assessments (known as the EIA Directive) was first introduced in 1985 and was amended in 1997. The directive was amended again in 2003, following EU signature of the 1998 Aarhus Convention. In 2001, the issue was enlarged to the assessment of plans and programmes by the so called Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive (2001/42/EC), which is now in force.
The EU directives have been implemented in the UK through a raft of EIA Regulations. For most development projects the statutory instrument is formed by “The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999″.
In addition to this Statutory Instrument a range of specific regulations exist to ensure that the EU Directives are implemented for projects that do not require planning consent in the UK. Examples of these are:
- The Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) (England) (No.2) Regulations 2006
- The Environmental Impact Assessment (Forestry) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999
- Environmental Impact Assessment (Land Drainage Improvement Works)Regulations 1999
The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations have been amended several times. Often as a consequence of European Court judgement about the implementation of the EU directive into the UK legislation. In 2010 the government started consultation on a new statutory instrument: “The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2010 “. The main purpose of these new regulations is to consolidate the original EIA regulations and the subsequent amendments, whilst also introducing a number of further amendments.
