Case Study

Scotland’s Environment Agency uses accreditation to monitor operator emissions.

In line with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s (SEPA) implementation of the Regulatory Evidence Strategy (RES), which provides a framework for SEPA’s approach to collecting information about the activities they regulate, the Agency has introduced the Measurement Assurance and Certification Scotland scheme (MACS). The Scheme, which forms part of the Agency’s better environmental regulation programme, relates to operator self-monitoring.

In order to establish a robust quality assurance framework, and to have confidence in its regulatory decision making, the MACS scheme is based on accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025. SEPA requires laboratories to be UKAS accredited to perform environmental analysis. The scheme covers the entire monitoring process: from planning and scheduling to sampling, analysis and data reporting.

The scheme is a further example of how accreditation can be used to support policy objectives. Further information about the scheme can be found on the SEPA website.