Environment Strategy for Scotland: strategic environmental assessment (SEA) post adoption statement

The measures decided concerning monitoring

Section 19 of the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) 2005 Act requires the Scottish Government, as the responsible authority, to monitor significant environmental effects of the implementation of the Environment Strategy.

It is not necessary to monitor everything or monitor an effect indefinitely. Instead, as noted in the SEA guidance, it is “practical to make a clear link between the significant effects predicted within an assessment and the indicators selected to monitor the likely environmental effects.”

The Environment Strategy sets out the holistic framework for delivering Scotland’s role in tackling the global crises of nature loss, climate change and pollution. The Environment Strategy also brings together our existing policy response to tackling these crises and builds on these by outlining new priorities and proposals. Whilst the Environment Strategy is expected to deliver positive impacts, the Scottish Government should undertake ongoing monitoring exercises to assess the implementation of the Strategy. Responses to the consultation also highlighted the importance of governance and monitoring to help ensure a successful delivery of the Environment Strategy. It is therefore vital that we track and report our progress as we work to deliver the vision and outcomes of the Strategy. This will play a vital role for informing improvements in our approach as we move forward.

We published an Initial Monitoring Framework in 2021, to identify the set of high-level indicators we will use to monitor progress towards each outcome. These indicators were chosen to provide a strategic and accessible overview of progress – signposting, where relevant, to more detailed indicators set out in the individual strategies and plans that sit within the Environment Strategy framework. We launched a website to report on the status and trends of indicators and explain what this tells us about our progress towards each outcome.

The Initial Monitoring Framework highlights some areas where additional work is needed to identify robust measures of progress. We intend to review and further develop the Monitoring Framework in order to address these areas. As part of this, we will reflect updates to the Strategy’s outcomes since the initial Framework was published. We will also take account of ongoing and planned work to develop nature restoration targets and circular economy targets. We look forward to working with stakeholders and public bodies as we take this forward.

This proposed approach to monitoring offers key opportunities to incorporate the monitoring of unforeseen environmental effects. As the Scottish Government develops the detail of the Environment Strategy monitoring, we will also look to reflect environmental indicators which reflect the SEA topics.

Individual policies, regulations and schemes that follow the publication of the Environment Strategy will also be assessed and reviewed for their impacts on the environment and further SEAs will be conducted, where appropriate.