CIEEM gives evidence on the draft Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill

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CIEEM was yesterday (21st May 2025) represented by Dr Caroline McParland CEnv MCIEEM, Vice-President for Scotland, as she gave evidence to a meeting of the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee (RAIC) who are considering the draft Natural Environment Bill.

The draft bill, published in February 2025, has four parts on: (1) statutory nature targets, (2) powers to change EIA legislation and Habitats Regulations, (3) National Parks, and (4) deer management.  

Questioning from MSPs in this session focused mainly on Part 1 and Part 2, and it is the latter which CIEEM is most concerned about as outlined in our written response to the RAIC’s call for views and in this webinar. This section of questioning began with Rhoda Grant MSP asking if the witnesses agreed that a new over-arching powers which enables modification of EIA legislation and Habitats regulations was needed. In her response, Dr McParland stated clearly that CIEEM does not support this section of the bill and went on to outline the reasons why, including:  

  • ‘modify’ or ‘amend’ has been defined as including ‘revoke’ or ‘repeal’ in the bill; 
  • EIA legislation and Habitats Regulations have been rigorously reviewed and tested and found to be robust; 
  • there are no safeguards such as non-regression or alternative guaranteed protections; 
  • the regulations already provide sufficient flexibility which is not reflected in the draft Bill and accompanying documentation. [Note: For Habitats Regulations the key existing powers are laid out in Regulation 9D and Regulation 11.] 
  • the proposals do not address the need to update guidance on, and build capacity for, the implementation and practice of EIAs and HRAs in Scotland;  

Many of these points, or similar, were also raised in the previous week’s evidence session at which several members of Scottish Environment LINK acted as witnesses. 

If you’d like to know more about this and the other parts of the bill, please watch our freely-available webinar which includes a brief overview and panel discussion. You can also access our written response to the RAIC’s call for views in our Resource Hub. 

Other witnesses present at this evidence session: 

  • Jacqueline Cook, Planning and Development Committee Vice Chair, Scottish Property Federation. 
  • Sarah Cowie, Senior Policy Manager Climate, Land and Business, National Farmers Union Scotland. 
  • Emily Johns, Nature Strategy Manager, SSEN Transmission. 
  • Stuart Goodall, Chief Executive, Confor. 
  • Elspeth Macdonald, Chief Executive, Scottish Fishermen’s Federation. 
  • Jenny Munro, Policy and Practice Officer, Royal Town Planning Institute. 
  • Stephen Young, Director of Policy, Scottish Land and Estates.