Project delivery
Cyprus
Three projects have been undertaken in Cyprus – (i) Environmental Permitting, Prevention of Oil Pollution and Environmental Impact Assessment, (ii) Environmental Inspection Training Scheme and (iii) Waste Management Strategy. All were secured through the European Commission’s Structural Reform Support Service (SRSS), and successfully delivered within scope, timescale and budget.
The first project provided an assessment of the need for an environmental inspectorate, aligning with the characteristics of 21st century environmental regulation: driving up regulatory compliance, and encouraging good practice beyond compliance whenever possible. We also made recommendations in respect of compliance assurance tools, the simplification of permitting, responding to oil pollution spills and strategic environment assessment. Overall, the project helped the Cypriot Authorities to increase environmental compliance, increase operating efficiency, improve preparedness and capacity for responding to oil spills, and fulfil the obligations of Environmental Impact Assessment legislation.
The second project involved the development and delivery of a training package for staff members of the Department of Environment (DoE) who will be involved in issuing environmental permits and carrying out inspections, to help build capacity for future environmental challenges. The project involved delivering a series of classroom training modules in Cyprus as well as running a series of joint inspections in both Scotland and Cyprus. Additionally, a full suite of training materials was developed for the DoE and a ’train the trainer’ course was delivered, helping to ensure that Cyprus can continue to build capacity in the years ahead. The training materials developed were also utilised to support internal training in SEPA.
The third project focused on waste management and supported Cyprus in addressing one of its major challenges, not least in relation to its attainment of EU targets. We collaborated with IMPEL on the project ‘Revising the National Strategy for the Management of Municipal Waste’, providing technical support to Cyprus in its efforts to make progress towards resource efficiency and effective waste management. The project team comprised technical experts from SEPA, Sardinia and Spain and was project managed by SEPA. Both the Municipal Waste Management Plan and the National Waste Prevention Plan were produced alongside a feasibility study and a strategic environment assessment.
Malawi Scotland Regulatory Partnership
Aligning with Scotland’s Hydro Nation Initiative, this project began in 2017 following a request for support from the Government of Malawi (GoM) to help operationalise Malawi’s National Water Resources Authority (NWRA). Following an initial exploratory phase, the Malawi-Scotland Regulatory Partnership (MSRP) was formally established in 2018 with a focus on supporting the NWRA through a direct regulator-to-regulator partnership. To date, we have continued to drive the evolution of the MSRP, extending the offer of support to the Malawi Environment Protection Authority (MEPA), and more centrally to the Government of Malawi through collaboration with the Ministry of Forestry and Natural Resources and Ministry of Water and Sanitation.
The NWRA and MEPA were both launched in challenging circumstances. On one hand this has been driven by the scale of the environmental challenges facing Malawi, resulting from climate change, poor resource management, rapid population growth, poverty, and historically weak regulation. On the other hand, a new government and increased public awareness/advocacy surrounding good environmental stewardship have generated high expectations of the regulators and parent ministries alike. However, a difficult operating environment, compounded by limited resources, have made the process of operationalisation difficult.
Recognising the diversity of challenges facing our colleagues in Malawi, the MSRP has maintained a multi-disciplinary team of Scottish and Malawian organisations to support delivery of priority activities. The partnership has included wider technical/sectoral research-based collaboration with the James Hutton Institute (JHI) and Water Witness International (WWI), based in Scotland, and BASEflow and BAWI Consultants who lead on in-country support.
To date, the MSRP team has delivered training from officer to board level, sharing skills and expertise covering a broad range of themes such as, institutional/organisational design, developing corporate governance frameworks and key policies/strategies, and technical topics such as inspections and developing regulatory information systems. Furthermore, the MSRP has engaged and developed a strong network across a broad range of stakeholders in Malawi (and further afield) in support of the regulators. This includes Ministers and major donors such as the World Bank and African Development Bank, using the soft power and Team Scotland ethos to complement the regulators and help leverage the key investment and support needed to become fully operational. From the outset, the MSRP’s unique regulator-to-regulator approach has received significant interest and support, demonstrating the value SEPA’s contribution can make in relation to climate, justice, and underpinning the Scottish Government’s long-standing commitment to supporting Malawi and its public institutions.
Malta
Through the SRSS, we provided support to two government departments - the Maltese Planning Authority in respect of the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive and the Environment Resources Authority in respect of environmental protection/improvement, training and capacity building.
For the second project, we collaborated with IMPEL in responding to the need for a strong environmental regulator, and the need to streamline its regulatory processes. The project will determine clearer and more efficient processes and practices, increase capacity for permitting and inspection, compliance assurance and enforcement, enhance transparency in environmental regulation, and enhance capacity to use e-governance. The project also considered strategic alignment with Sustainable Development Goals and national initiatives, permitting, inspections, compliance and enforcement.
Jersey
Providing direct support to the State of Jersey (Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel) to support the assessment of their Water Management Plan.
Providing support to the States of Jersey Government in relation to developing a catchment approach for the agricultural sector. We developed inspection criteria and undertook farm visits in Jersey. The project produced templates for officers to use in the future and generated a range of recommendations for how agricultural sector practices can improve going forward.
Macedonia
As part of the European Commission’s TAIEX programme, we supported the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning of the Republic of Macedonia to revise and update their National Waste Management Plan (NWMP). Two one-week missions were held in-country, in April and July 2017. This work was followed by SEPA providing expertise, advice and guidance to the Ministry to finalise the new NWMP and prepare it for public consultation.
Romania
Working in partnership with the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) and Scottish Water International, we contributed to the European Commission SRSS-funded project ‘Strengthening of Economic and environmental Regulation in the Romanian Water and Wastewater Sector’. Our key focus was the delivery of Component B.2 ‘Improving data quality for River Basin Management Plans’. We worked collaboratively with Romanian Waters to understand challenges, exchange information and identify potential future collaborations.
A significant deliverable of the project was four workshops, covering agriculture, hydromorphology, flood management and water industry, which brought together technical experts, policy makers and influencers from across Romania through the participation of 26 different organisations. The workshops provided the opportunity for open and frank discussions on the nature of the challenges and potential solutions, further information exchange and potential future collaborations.
Regulators’ Pioneer Fund
We have been successful in securing funding from the Regulators’ Pioneer Fund co-ordinated by the Department of Business, Energy and Industry Strategy:
DecomRegHub
The project brought together SEPA, the Environment Agency, the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning (OPRED), the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA). The Decommissioning Regulatory Hub (DecomRegHub) provided, and continues to provide, a collaborative and safe forum for industry engagement with multiple regulators and exploration of the technical and regulatory requirements of offshore oil and gas decommissioning. It addressed an identified need for streamlining the decommissioning industry’s regulatory journey to achieve better compliance outcomes, reduce harms and accelerate the sector involvement in the circular economy. The funded project was completed in March 2020 and comprised an operational problem-solving joint forum as well as an online portal.
DecomRegHub has now been embedded into business as usual within the participating agencies, meets regularly to develop regulatory solutions to a range of complex industry challenges, and provides targeted training and briefing sessions for regulators and industry alike. Additional regulators concerned with aspects of decommissioning activities, such as the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), are now also becoming members of DecomRegHub.
Regeneration for Growth – Data Innovation for Collaborative Regulation (Leven)
A Knowledge Hub, focused on the Leven Catchment area, that enables a collaborative cross sector response; providing a “one stop shop” to data, information and evidence from which informed ‘collective’ decisions can be based and enabling strategically planned projects that ensure inclusive growth and environmental regeneration. This project connected key data sets to support activities across regulatory boundaries, providing multi-agency advice and enabling comprehensive understanding of decision impacts, investment/funding opportunities and catchment wide benefits.
Industrial Net Zero Regulatory Hub (Grangemouth)
Supporting the ambitious goal of transitioning into an inclusive and resilient net zero economy; setting out a framework for the creation of a regulatory hub that will provide a safe space for addressing the challenge collaboratively and innovatively. Focusing on the Grangemouth industrial cluster, the project brought together other regulators, public sector organisations, businesses and communities to understand the existing environment, understand what a future resilient Grangemouth could look like and set out a framework for creating a space for innovation, solving compliance problems quickly, exploring opportunities to go beyond compliance and driving transformational change.
Outcome Based Regulation
In 2022, we were successful in securing funding to explore and test an outcome-based regulation (OBR) approach, with a focus on supporting the achievement of net zero. The project started in September 2023 and will bring together regulators, other public sector organisations, operators and businesses to explore what OBR might mean for existing practices, processes and what it means for regulators in their approach to setting and assessing compliance. Trialling OBR in Scotland’s largest industrial cluster provides the opportunity to test in a complex regulatory landscape, encompass emerging and innovative technologies with a focus on hydrogen and the bioeconomy. This will also provide a robust test case for further exploration with small and medium enterprises and other sectors. In doing so, the project will generate deeper understanding of the holistic regulatory environment in industrial clusters including economic, environmental, and national/regional policies, strategies, and incentives. This, in turn, will improve understanding of investment drivers and constraints, make dialogue with business and industry more productive and support innovation. The project will explore how new approaches to regulation can contribute to a collaborative ecosystem which achieves strategic and economic outcomes significant at a Scotland and UK level.
LIFE SMART Waste Project (End of life ships – joint intelligence model)
During 2017-2019, we delivered expertise to an intelligence toolkit workstream within the EU funded and SEPA-led LIFE SMART Waste project. The focus of this workstream was to deliver a toolkit for gathering, analysing and sharing intelligence relating to key regulated sectors that are potentially vulnerable to organised crime. One of the key outcomes of this was a case study applied to the cross-border issue of end-of-life shipping. The findings were presented in a workshop at a joint Interpol / LIFE SMART Waste conference in Brussels. A proposed “next steps” coalition received strong endorsement from Interpol, US EPA, US Coastguard, FBI, and key European nation state EPAs including Norway and Netherlands.
SEPA’s Inverdee House
In May 2017, we undertook an initial feasibility study to determine the viability of moving Aberdeen City Council’s Scientific Services Laboratory (ASSL) to SEPA’s Inverdee House. Following this, in August 2018, Aberdeen City Council commissioned consultants to undertake a more detailed feasibility study to determine indicative costs associated with this move.
Both studies concluded that the existing space in Inverdee House could be altered to accommodate the requirements of both ASSL and SEPA.
SEPA Fleet Management
A strategic and operational review of SEPA’s vehicle fleet. This review considered the composition of the existing fleet and its suitability for current and future operational requirements, taking into consideration the following key drivers: (i) Contributing to the delivery of SEPA’s ambitious Net Zero target; (ii) Ensuring value for money; (iii) Minimising use of private vehicles; (iv) Minimising operational risks. The review resulted in a number of key recommendations to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of SEPA’s fleet.
Project delivery around the world
Delivered
- Regulators’ Pioneer Fund - DeComRegHub, Leven and Grangemouth (x2)
- Armenia - Sharing Scotland's regulatory approach
- Azerbaijan - Implementation of the EU's WEEE Directive
- Balkans - Understanding the financial implications of environmental crime
- Cyprus -
- Developing a permitting agency; an SEA platform and reviewing their oil spill response plans
- Revising a national strategy for waste management
- Training of regulatory and enforcement staff
- Egypt - Advice on national solid waste management
- Guernsey - Waste management inspections / audits
- Jersey -
- Catchment advice to the farming sector
- Review of Nitrate strategy
- Kosovo - Soil degradation and conservation strategy
- Macedonia - Developing a national waste management strategy
- Malawi - Developing the National Water Regulatory Authority
- Malta -
- Permissions and compliance capacity building
- Support the implementation of the SEA directive
- Romania - Improvement of River Basin Management Planning
- Turkey - Supporting the implementation of WFD
- Ukraine - Showcasing how to implement the EU Flood Directive
Not progressed
- India - Establishing an evidence based approach to RBMP