After ERCS challenged RPID’s failure to comply with the law, they have finally published the register of agricultural Environmental Impact Assessments.
A concerned citizen contacted ERCS’s free legal advice service, identifying that the Scottish Government’s Rural Payments and Inspections Division (RPID) was breaching its duty to publish documents relating to Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for large agricultural projects. This is required by the Agriculture, Land Drainage and Irrigation Projects (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017.
Despite the clear breach of law, we had to request Environmental Standards Scotland three times to intervene before they agreed to investigate – read our Legal Director Dr Ben Christman’s analysis of this case.
As a result of our persistence, RPID has now published a functioning agricultural EIA register.
Why is this important?
Everyone in Scotland has the right to access environmental information held by public authorities as enshrined in the UNECE Aarhus Convention. This right is safeguarded by the Agriculture, Land Drainage and Irrigation Projects (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017.
Intensive agriculture can cause significant harm to the environment: it is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss in Scotland, and run-off from farmland contributes to pollution in lochs and rivers.
Environmental Impact Assessments enable RPID to understand the potential impacts of a proposed project when deciding whether it can go ahead. Having these documents publicly available is critical to accountability and transparency on their decision-making.
