The Scottish government have published the Draft Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025. These Draft Regulations aim to make important amendments to the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations SSI 2018/219 in order to bring water, waste and industrial emissions activities into the framework for authorisation of environmental activities.
The Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations SSI 2018/219 introduced the basis for an integrated framework of environmental authorisations in Scotland. Those Regulations began by establishing a system of authorisation for radioactive substances activities, meaning those carrying out such activities must obtain an authorisation to do so.
Environmental regulation is currently more complex than it needs to be. The four existing main environmental regimes regulate activities throughout Scotland at many locations and have multiple authorisations under different legislation, covering one or more activity, often at the same location. Regulating multiple authorisations requires different procedures, different monitoring arrangements and multiple inspections by different officers.
It was always the intention of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to consolidate the regulatory authorisation arrangements for SEPA’s four main regulatory areas - water, waste, radioactive substances and Pollution Prevention and Control - into an integrated structure under a single standardised procedure. However the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations SSI 2018/219 only applied to authorisations for radioactive substances activities initially in order to give businesses certainty and time to adjust to changes, as well as ensuring more manageable workloads for SEPA in rolling out an integrated regime.
The proposals are only in Draft form at the moment, so do not form part of the law yet. We've set out the main proposals contained in the Draft, below.
Integrated Authorisation
The Draft Regulations aim to make amendments that provide that activities (water, waste, industrial and other emissions activities) which are currently regulated under the existing regimes by way of licence, permit or registration will be deemed to be authorised under the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations SSI 2018/219.
In doing so they will revoke much of the current legislation that provides for the environmental activities that will be included in the new integrated environmental authorisations framework as these activities will instead be covered by the authorisations under the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations SSI 2018/219.
Expanded scope for authorisations
The amendments made in the Draft Regulations also bring new activities into scope for authorisations. This includes:
Widening the scope of regulation for carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) activities
These activities were only regulated where capture and geological storage of carbon dioxide streams took place at industrial sites that already had a permit under the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations SSI 2012/360. These amendments will see that CCUS activities will be regulated based on certain thresholds, regardless of whether the site already has a permit to operate, and activities in scope are widened to include use activities as well as storage;
Introducing regulation for the non-waste anaerobic digestion (AD) sector
AD that uses various feedstocks identified as wastes have been regulated for a number of years because of their potential to impact the water environment and cause odour nuisance. However these amendments will introduce regulation for AD that use bio-based feedstocks not defined as waste, as this activity carries the same risks to the environment as waste AD does, and is becoming a significant part of the sector in Scotland. This will ensure there is a level regulatory playing field for those operating AD in Scotland and ensure all activities are conducted in ways that do not impact the environment;
Introducing regulation for small electricity generators at a single site, where they aggregate to 1 MWth or more
The Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations SSI 2012/360 is set to transpose the requirements of Directive (EU) 2015/2193, on the limitation of emissions of certain pollutants into the air from medium combustion plants (Medium Combustion Plant Directive - MCPD). This means that, under these proposed changes, by 1 January 2029 all generators with a thermal input of 1– 50 MW will require authorisation and will need to meet certain air quality derived emission limit values (ELVs) from 1 January 2030. In order to avoid a loophole in regulation, the Scottish government have decided to introduce obligations for smaller generators that aggregate to 1 MWth or more at a single site, because the environmental impact of such generators is very similar to that of single, larger generators captured by the provisions of the MCPD. These generator arrays will need to meet ELVs set by SEPA under the authorisation regime to protect air quality, in line with the requirements for larger individual generators. This will bring the regulation of generators in Scotland in line with those in England and Wales.
Sewage sludge to land
The Draft Regulations also aim to make changes to the way the application of sewage sludge (and other waste for the purposes of soil recovery) to land is regulated. A review back in 2016 found that the regulation of the storage and spreading of sludge to land was in need of change. The proposed changes are now part of these amendments, and include:
New activities that will be included in the integrated authorisation framework are set to be subject to a phased in approach. The Scottish government have published the following timeframes for this, once these Draft Regulations come into force.
|
Activity |
Specified date |
|
Application of sewage sludge to land |
June 2025 |
|
Carbon capture, utilisation and storage |
April 2027 |
|
Non-waste anaerobic digestion |
April 2028 |
|
Electricity generators (with an aggregated rated thermal input of 1 MW or more at a single site) |
January 2029 |
What next?
These Regulations are still in Draft format currently. If they are approved by the Scottish Parliament then they will likely enter into force in 2025.
The Draft Regulations themselves propose coming into force dates at the earliest of 1 June 2025 for specific provisions, with the rest of the regulations coming into force on 1 November 2025.
Once the final regulations are published we'll add them on to the site - so watch this space.
For more information, see the:
