• PREPARED BY: NAJIHAH BINTI

NASHARUDIN
BQSCM & REMD
4535BEKL
INTRODUCTION TO LAW
WEEK 13:ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

PREPARED BY: NAJIHAH BINTI

NASHARUDIN
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ASSESSMENT
 The aim of Environmental Impact Assessment is to
protect the environment by ensuring that a local
planning authority when deciding whether to grant
planning permission for a project.

 This will have significant effects on the environment,

does so in the full knowledge of the likely significant
effects, and takes this into account in the decision
making process.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ASSESSMENT
 The regulations set out a procedure for identifying
those projects which should be subject to an:

 Environmental Impact Assessment, and for

assessing, consulting and coming to a decision
on those projects which are likely to have
significant environmental effects.

 The aim of Environmental Impact Assessment

is also to ensure that the public are given early
and effective opportunities to participate in the
decision making procedures.
 EIA was introduced in Malaysia as a mandatory legislative requirement in April
1988 through the Environmental Impact Assessment Order (DOE, 1987)
(prescribed activities).

 It is modelled on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) 1969 of the

United States. The local legislation amended the existing Environmental Quality
Act (EQA) 1974, which introduced extensive powers to the Director General of
the Environment to protect and enhance the quality of the environment through
licensing, setting of standards, co-ordination of research, and dissemination of
information to the public.
 The regulations only apply to certain types of development:

 They can even apply to ‘permitted development’ which is

development for which you do not need to get planning permission.

 They do not apply to development given consent under other regimes,

these are subject to separate Environmental Impact Assessment
regulations.
OVERVIEW OF THE
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
PROCESS
There are 5 broad stages to the process:

 1) Screening

 2) Scoping

 3) Preparing an Environmental Statement

 4) Making an application and consultation

 5) Decision making
OVERVIEW OF THE
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
PROCESS
1) Screening

 Determining whether a proposed project falls within the remit

of the Regulations, whether it is likely to have a significant
effect on the environment and therefore requires an
assessment.
OVERVIEW OF THE
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
PROCESS
2) Scoping

 Determining the extent of issues to be considered in the

assessment and reported in the Environmental Statement. The
applicant can ask the local planning authority for its opinion on
what information needs to be included (which is called a ‘scoping
opinion’).
OVERVIEW OF THE
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
PROCESS
3) Preparing an Environmental Statement

 Where it is decided that an assessment is required, the applicant must prepare

and submit an Environmental Statement. The Environmental Statement must

include at least the information reasonably required to assess the likely significant

environmental effects of the development.

 To help the applicant, public authorities must make available any relevant

environmental information in their possession.

OVERVIEW OF THE
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
PROCESS
 In practice, the preliminary statement submissions have become fairly detailed and are not just
limited to a scoping exercise, which may have been originally envisaged by the legislators. It was
noted by one researcher that very few detailed EIAs were submitted and, in the two-year period
studied (1988–1990), only one project submitted was categorised as a detailed EIA. An
examination of preliminary EIAs revealed that many are not just brief documents based on
secondary data that evaluate alternatives. They often exceed 100 pages and include a collection
of primary data, which is not mandatory for a preliminary report.

 To ensure the completeness and quality of the Environmental Statement, the developer must
ensure that it is prepared by competent experts. The Environmental Statement must be
accompanied by a statement from the developer outlining the relevant expertise or qualifications
of such experts.
OVERVIEW OF THE
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
PROCESS
4) Making an application and consultation

 The Environmental Statement (and the application for development to

which it relates) must be publicised electronically and by public notice.
The statutory ‘consultation bodies’ and the public must be given an
opportunity to give their views about the proposed development and the
Environmental Statement.
OVERVIEW OF THE
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
PROCESS
5) Decision making

 The Environmental Statement, together with any other information which

is relevant to the decision, and any comments and representations made
on it, must be taken into account by the local planning authority and/or
the Secretary of State in deciding whether or not to grant consent for the
development. The public must be informed of the decision and the main
reasons for it both electronically and by public notice.
WHAT DEVELOPMENT IS
COVERED BY THE REGULATIONS?
 The Regulations apply to:

 planning applications: received by a local planning authority or

which are referred to the Secretary of State for determination;

 “subsequent applications“: i.e. applications for approval of a

matter which is required by an extant planning permission and
which must be obtained before all or part of the development
permitted by the planning permission may begin;
WHAT DEVELOPMENT IS
COVERED BY THE REGULATIONS?
 A local planning authority’s own development

 Development permitted by simplified planning zone schemes, enterprise zone orders, local development
orders and neighbourhood development orders

 Development which is subject to a planning enforcement

 Applications to review a mineral permission and for approval of conditions

 Development which is carried out under permitted development rights

 Applications to carry out development without complying with a condition attached to an existing planning
permission

 Crown development

 Demolition
WHEN IS ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACT ASSESSMENT REQUIRED?
 Screening is a procedure used to determine whether a proposed project is
likely to have significant effects on the environment.

 It should normally take place at an early stage in the design of the project.

 However, it can also occur after a planning application has been made or
even after an appeal has been made.

 A developer can choose not to seek a screening opinion, and proceed to

prepare and submit an Environmental Statement.
 The local planning authority should determine the type of
project as listed in the regulations:

 The local planning authority should consider whether it is

likely to have significant effects on the environment.

CAN THE SCREENING OPINION BE
CHALLENGED?
 Generally, local planning authorities in the first instance to consider whether a
proposed development requires an Environmental Impact Assessment.

 They are empowered to make directions in relation to the need for Environmental
Impact Assessment.

 Directions will normally be made in response to a request from a developer.

 Where the local planning authority’s opinion is that Environmental Impact Assessment
is required, or where a local planning authority fails to adopt a screening opinion within
3 weeks (or within an extended period agreed in writing with the person making the
request), the person who requested the screening opinion of the local planning
authority may request to make a screening direction.
END OF LECTURE
THANK YOU…