New EIA Report Guidance

As part of the Scottish Onshore Wind Sector Deal, the sector and Scottish Government committed to streamline Environmental Impact Assessment Reports (EIARs):

Proactively engage with consultees to improve approaches to the scoping of the environmental information required in EIARs. We will seek to ensure that the information produced on each topic is both sufficient and as brief as possible, focusing on potentially significant environmental effects while explaining why other topics do not require assessment within the EIAR. We will provide notice of upcoming consultations as early as is practical, helping ensure that the appropriate resource will be available when needed.

Establish a collaborative working group to develop a recommended standard scope and format for EIARs for onshore wind farms, designed to reduce the burden on consultees and other stakeholders.

This work has been underway, with feedback from all statutory consultee stakeholders, for more than a year. Here is the final guidance.

This document is a living document and may be updated periodically with learnings.