Draft Environment Strategy: strategic environmental assessment
Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) to determine the potential impacts of implementation of the draft Environment Strategy on the environment.
Chapter 7: Monitoring
7.1 Monitoring significant environmental effects is a statutory requirement within the 2005 Act. Monitoring seeks to ensure that plans avoid generating unforeseen adverse environmental effects and enables the responsible authority to undertake appropriate remedial action.
7.2 Section 11 in the Draft Environment Strategy sets out the monitoring arrangements for the Strategy. An Initial Monitoring Framework, published in 2021, sets out high-level indicators designed to provide a strategic overview and link to more detailed measures within related strategies and plans. In 2022, a website was launched to report on indicator trends and their implications for progress. The framework identifies areas where further work is needed to establish robust measures, and a review is planned to refine it, incorporating updates to the Strategy’s outcomes and ongoing developments such as nature restoration targets and the Circular Economy Strategy. The monitoring arrangements in the Draft Strategy also outlines that collaboration with stakeholders and public bodies will be key to this process.
7.3 The 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, this should reflect environmental indicators which reflect the SEA topics. The proposals for monitoring will be addressed and further outlined within the post adoption statement at the end of the SEA process.