An overview of UK practice to date - Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment - page 224

Figure 8.3 EISs prepared in the UK,
July 1988 to April 1998: types of
project. ( Source: Wood & Bellanger
1998.)
In the first few years following the implementation of Directive 85/337, 40 per cent of
EISs were produced for the public sector and 60 per cent for the private sector (Wood
1991). The percentage of private sector projects has increased somewhat owing to
privatization, but much of this has been balanced by the heavy government investment
in—and consequently EISs for—new roads. A particularly interesting subset is that of the
10 per cent of EIAs for which one agency acts as both the project proponent and the
competent authority (e.g. the Highway Agency for roads, the Forestry Agency for
afforestation).
8.2.3 Location of projects
Figure 8.4 shows the distribution of known EISs (1988-98) in England, Scotland and
Wales by county or region. Generally, more is known about English and Scottish than
about Welsh and Northern Irish EISs, so the figure may understate the situation in Wales
and Ireland. By the end of 1998, the most EISs—about 170—had been prepared for
projects in Kent: the Channel Tunnel, the M20 “missing link” and the Dartford Crossing
have spawned proposals for major secondary projects, including