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Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations

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This page contains details of the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations. It includes why you might need to know about them, and what to do if works you are considering could be affected by them.

On August 19th 2002, European Commission Regulations came into force. These applied to all uncultivated land and semi-natural areas in Wales (except for forestry and woodlands which already have their own regulations).

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations (2002) for uncultivated land and semi-natural areas have now been extended to include projects for large-scale restructuring of rural land holdings. There are no changes to the Regulations regarding agricultural improvements on uncultivated land or semi-natural areas. The revised regulations (Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) (Wales) Regulations 2007) came into effect on 31st October 2007.

If you intend to carry out either:

  • agricultural improvements on uncultivated land or semi-natural areas; or,
  • projects involving restructuring of rural land holdings on any agricultural land type;

you will need to consult us before you proceed.

Under the Regulations it is illegal to proceed with such agricultural projects without obtaining a screening decision. Failure to do so may lead to prosecution, enforcement, a requirement to reinstate the land to its previous condition and/or to a Cross Compliance penalty in your Single Payment Scheme (SPS).