SEPA gets fresh responsibility under regulatory reform bill

摘要

The remit of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is likely to change under a proposed new law. The Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Bill, introduced on 28 March, gives all Scottish regulators a new economic duty. Concerns that economic pressures would undermine SEPA's environmental role, expressed in responses to an earlier consultation on the proposals (ENDS Report 456, pp 40-41), appear to have been taken on board. Rather than a duty to "promote" sustainable economic growth, the bill now asks regulators to "contribute to achieving" it. This is followed by a caveat: "Except to the extent that it would be inconsistent with the exercise of those functions to do so."