An overview of UK practice to date - Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment - page 226

Midlands (50), light rail and waste disposal also feature prominently. Many EISs (105)
have been prepared in Strathclyde, largely for extraction, incinerator and leisure
proposals. Recently several wind-farm EISs have also been submitted. The areas with the
fewest EISs are in southern Scotland, mid-Wales, the northern Home Counties and
Somerset.
The types of development vary considerably between regions, reflecting differences in
the local economic bases. Thus, certain areas show concentrations of particular project
types, for instance opencast coal schemes in Derbyshire and the northern English
counties, power stations in Greater London and Humberside, wind farms in Wales and
Cornwall, afforestation schemes in the Scottish Highlands and agricultural projects in
Lincolnshire and Shropshire.
8.2.4 Sources of EISs
When an LPA receives an EIS, it is required to send a copy to the government office in
its region, which then forwards it to the Office of Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) library
in London once the application has been dealt with. However, this process can be a long
one. The ODPM library is open to the public by appointment; photocopies can be made
on the premises. In Wales, planning EISs are forwarded to the Welsh Assembly. In
Scotland, all EISs are sent to the Scottish Assembly, while in Northern Ireland they are
sent to the Northern Ireland DoE. Other government agencies, such as the Highways
Agency and the Forestry Agency, also hold collections and lists of the EISs that fall
under their jurisdiction. These collections are, however, generally not publicly available,
although limited access for research purposes may be allowed.
The Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), based in
Lincoln, has a collection of over 600 EISs, which are available by pre-arrangement with
institute staff and can also be mailed on a loan basis to members. It has also published a
Digest of Environmental Statements (IEA 1993), which provides comprehensive
summaries of 1,800 EISs. The EIA Centre at the keeps a large
database of EISs and EIA-related literature: its collection of over 500 EISs is, like its
database, open to the public, by appointment. Oxford Brookes University's collection of
approximately 900 EISs is open to the public, by appointment, and photo copies can be
made on the premises. The University's IAU publishes an occasional directory of EISs,
the latest being by Wood & Bellanger (1998). Other organizations, such as the Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds, the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, EN and the
Campaign to Protect Rural England, as well as many environmental consultancies, also
have limited collections of EISs, but these are generally kept by individuals within the
organization for in-house use only, and are not available to the public.
The difficulty of finding out which EISs exist and their often prohibitive cost make the
acquisition and analysis of EISs arduous. Various organizations, e.g. IEMA, the
and Oxford Brookes University, have called for one central
repository for all EISs in the UK.