Pollution prevention and control
Background
The Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2012 are an implementation of the European Union (EU) directive 2010/75/EU on Industrial Emissions Directive (IED). The Regulations provide an integrated environmental approach to regulating particular industrial activities.
As part of the application process, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) are required to seek comments from various statutory consultees such as:
- Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
- relevant NHS Board
- relevant local authority
- Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH)
- Food Standards Scotland (FSS)
- Scottish Water
- harbour authorities
Consultees are asked to review the application from their own particular perspective and comment on implications for their particular remit. An example of this would be the local health board commenting on potential impacts to human health.
A pollution prevention and control (PPC) guide has been produced for NHS boards. The overall aim is to assist NHS boards, acting as statutory consultees, in identifying relevant information to enable them to provide comments relating to potential public health hazards and risks that the industrial process in question may pose. These comments are then fed back to SEPA and should form part of their deliberation process to determine whether an application is granted or rejected.