Published this morning, the SEPA data shows 91% of Scottish regulated business sites were assessed as compliant in 2019, with 78% rated as excellent.
The marks a 0.5% increase from the previous year, and the fifth year in a row that more than 90% of businesses were compliant. There was however a 4% drop in the number of inspections, to 4,924.
Among those to be rated as excellent were A.W. Jenkinson’s Lockerbie wood recycling plant, MVV’s Baldovie incinerator, Veolia’s CHP plant in Grangemouth, and Viridor’s Dunbar energy from waste plant.
The Auchenlosh and Duisky landfill sites were rated poorly.
Jo Green, acting chief executive of SEPA, said: “The environmental compliance of Scottish business really matters, as does the visibility of performance data.
“That’s why today we’re publishing the latest compliance assessment data recovered following a December 2020 cyber-attack by international serious and organised criminals.”
Data
On Christmas Eve 2020, SEPA was the victim of a “sophisticated ransomware attack” which saw around 1.2GB of data stolen (see letsrecycle.com story).
SEPA has been working with authorities on recovering as much of it as possible, and the environmental compliance statistics are one of three sets due to be published in the coming months.
Later this year, it will publish a 2020/21 report on regulatory approach to the public health pandemic.
Pandemic
SEPA says its regulatory approach was “clear” that given public health restrictions during the pandemic was unable to operate its formal compliance assessment scheme, but will report separately on regulatory positions, permitting, monitoring, compliance, and enforcement.
SEPA says it remains committed to a “publicly accessible” compliance assessment approach and will consult “widely” to gather high level views from a range of stakeholders in 2022.
We’re pleased that nine out of 10 Scottish businesses did the right thing
- Jo Green, acting chief executive of SEPA
Ms Green added: “Whilst draft data was stolen, illegally published on the dark web, and subject to media reporting in October 2021, it’s important we published final data in line with our recovery strategy.
“Here we’re pleased that for the fifth year in a row, nine out of 10 Scottish businesses did the right thing by Scotland’s environment and that over seven out of 10 achieved our top billing.
“We know the importance of compliance information and, as part of our recovery from Covid-19 and the significant cyber-attack, we’re committed to consulting on a new, publicly accessible compliance assessment approach in 2022.”
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