EIA Follow-Up in the UK — A 2015 Update

Abstract

EIA is globally recognised and implemented as a decision making support instrument in project planning. Whilst it should be involved in both, pre-development consent deliberations as well as in subsequent phases, including post construction, in practice, follow-up is often deficient. In this paper, a review of how follow-up is dealt with in UK environmental statement non-technical summaries is presented. Furthermore, opinions of UK EIA practitioners with regards to current practices and barriers and possible implications of the new EC EIA Directive from 2014 are discussed. Comparing results with earlier publications, an overall minor positive change in follow-up practices in the UK is identified and three main barriers for improved follow-up are established: (1) lack of appropriate legislation, (2) implementation costs, and (3) lack of enforcement. The latter may still be the number one reason for continued deficient practice, even when the new EIA Directive is implemented.