Figures released by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) show that 91 percent of large or complex industrial sites in Scotland have passed their annual assessment.

The figures are below SEPA's 92 percent target for satisfactory Operator Performance Assessment (OPA). Of the 405 sites covered by the Pollution Prevention and Control regulations, 369 passed. Only 36 sites did not get a satisfactory result and should now expect increased regulatory activity, including additional inspections or specific audits, in the coming year.

Fourteen sites did not meet the required standards for a second year in a row, and of these six have not met the standards for three years. All these sites are subject to various levels of enforcement and, in some cases, where progress to reach these standards has been insufficient, SEPA has referred operators to the Procurator Fiscal.

SEPA believes publishing the figures is important not only for transparency, but also to encourage improvement and to recognise the performance of sites that have done well. The results are based on the risk of the operation undertaken, Pollution Hazard Appraisal (PHA), and the way in which that risk is managed (OPA). Figures are based on a full year of operation, from Jan 1 to Dec 31.

The assessments contain a number of site specific factors and neither part can be looked at in isolation. An operator may score highly on the PHA but manage that risk well. The PHA is helpful for SEPA to compare within sectors but will not provide a ranking of hazard from the smallest to the largest between sectors.

Colin Bayes, SEPA's Director of Environmental Protection and Improvement, said: "On the whole these results are encouraging as 2008 has been a year of major change for PPC. This is the first full year of operation for a number of sites under their new PPC permit, with a number of operators transferring from Integrated Pollution Control (IPC), Waste Management License (WML). There are also operators that are new to integrated regulation.

"We are regulating more sites than ever and against higher standards. It appears to be the waste sector that is struggling most with compliance and if you take those sites out of the figures the overall assessment rate rises to 94 percent. The OPA scores are therefore useful in identifying where additional resource needs to be expended to help companies achieve a satisfactory result, such as within the waste sector.

The full OPA and PHA results are available on SEPA's website at sepa.org.uk.

Quelle: Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)

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