Strategic Environmental Assessment

EU legislation requiring the environmental assessment of plans and programmes came into being in 2001 through Directive 2001/42/EC

In Scotland, the requirements of the Directive are taken forward by the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005.The Act requires that environmental assessment is undertaken on all public sector plans, programmes and strategies which are likely to have significant environmental effects.

SEA provides a systematic process for identifying, predicting, reporting, mitigating and monitoring the environmental effects of plans, programmes and strategies.

Guidance

The Scottish Government has published an SEA Tool Kit which provides detailed practical guidance on the steps involved in the SEA process and includes standard templates for practitioners. UK-wide guidance on SEA is available from A Practical Guide to the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive .

Historic Scotland's Role

Historic Scotland has two roles under the Act:

• as a Consultation Authority

The Scottish Ministers have designated Historic Scotland to act on their behalf on matters affecting the historic environment.  Our duties are set out in the Act, involving the following tasks:

- responding to screening reports (specified 28 day time frame);
- responding to requests for assistance in scoping Environmental Reports (specified 35 day time frame);
- review of Environmental Reports (timeframe agreed during scoping); and
- responding to adoption notices, where required.

• as a Responsible Authority

The term ‘Responsible Authority’ is used in the Act to describe the organisation responsible for preparing the plan, programme or strategy.  Historic Scotland prepares plans, programmes and strategies and will undertake SEA of those that are likely to have significant environmental effects.

Administrative arrangements

The Act requires Responsible Authorities to submit consultation documents to the Consultation Authorities at various stages of the SEA process, including screening, scoping, and Environmental Reports and post-adoption statements.

The Scottish Government has established the SEA Gateway to manage the administration of SEA consultations. Responsible Authorities should submit all formal SEA consultation documents to the Scottish Government SEA Gateway who will issue the documents to the Consultation Authorities and coordinate the return of responses from the Consultation Authorities within the appropriate timeframe.
Further details about the roles and responsibilities of the SEA Gateway are found in the SEA Tool Kit

Contact details for the SEA Gateway are provided below:

SEA Gateway
Scottish Government
Area 1-H (Bridge)
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ

Email:SEA.Gateway@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone:0131 244 5094

Historic Scotland contact details

In addition to the Scottish Government SEA Gateway, each Consultation Authority has established an SEA Gateway. These have been put into place to provide a central point of contact for enquiries to the individual Consultation Authorities and to coordinate handling of SEA consultations within each organisation.