Public Register
Publication of searchable table and authorisation documents issued since 1 January 2021.
Project lead: Lesley Dodds
Job title: Permitting Principle Business Support Officer
1. Outline your new or revised process, policy, project, or event
SEPA receives a high volume of enquiries monthly, with over 23,000 received by Registry in 2023/24 financial year. Approximately 2000 of these requests were for copy documentation of authorisations already issued. There are multiple reasons why a request for the documentation is received, e.g. consultants carrying out desk top surveys, a member of the public wanting to know more information about a site close to where they live, other stakeholders wanting more information about the site operation, etc.
There are no current legislative requirements to publish all of the documentation on line but SEPA as an open and transparent regulator wants to make it easier to access such documentation and therefore requires to make this information available online.
Publication of a searchable table to provide data with links to authorisation documents issued by SEPA since 1 January 2021. This is already available for PPC Part A documentation, which was a project developed internally.
Due to commitments to re-instate an interim Public Register SEPA now has to publish all authorisation documents issued since 1 January 2021 and the solution suggested is to build on to the PPC Part A system – this is an interim solution.
A fully digital Public Register project will be set up in Phase 2 of the new SEPA web site. Lessons learned from this project will be considered to improve documentation and data for the new digital Public Register. User experience will be undertaken to understand who requires access to documentation and why.
Who will your project impact on? What evidence do we have of who the project will impact on?
The project may have an impact on any person with accessibility requirements. As the majority of the documents are historical and are not all fully accessible there could be an impact.
SEPA’s equality outcome 2 is that we are committed to improve access to people with lived experience of inequality, related to a protected characteristic or socioeconomic status, access, and use SEPA’s services without barriers. This project will aim to deliver on that commitment.
What impact will it have on people and different groups of people? Could your project negatively impact on those within the Protected Characteristics and effect their opportunity to access or benefit from it?
The documents are produced by SEPA but are not checked for accessibility. They will all be published as PDF documents which restricts the accessibility of the documents.
The documents are legal documentation that cannot be reproduced and reissued as accessible documents “after the fact”.
Screen readers may be able to read the documentation but there will not be text alternatives provided for images.
Anyone with poor quality broadband, no broadband or no access to a computer will not be able to access this information.
A specific Accessibility Statement has been developed for the “Find an Authorisation document” web page and indicates what is not accessible and why.
What actions will we take to eliminate, or limit to the best of our abilities, any negative impact?
Should any documentation be inaccessible, a request can be made for an alternative accessible copy of the document to be issued to them.
If anyone does not have access to broadband or a computer a request can be made to SEPA for copies to be issued to them in a format they require.
Training and guidance for all staff producing documentation to ensure accessibility.
Sign off
- Lesley Dodds - Project lead (21/05/2024)
- Sandra Tough - AMT member/ Senior leader responsible (22/05/2024)