An overview of UK practice to date - Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment - page 238

The experience of the developer, consultant and competent autbority also affects EIS
quality. For instance, Lee & Brown (1992) showed that of EISs prepared by developers
(without consultants) who had already submitted at least one EIS 27 per cent were
satisfactory, compared with 8 per cent of those prepared by developers with no
Table 8.9 Project size vs. EIS quality, %
satisfactory*

Lee & Brown 1992** DoE 1996**

Project size***

Small 20 50

Medium 35 54

Large, very large 50-65 64

* Satisfactory means marks of A, B or C based on the Lee & Colley (1990 or 1992) criteria.
** Lee & Brown reviewed 83 EISs, DoE 50.
*** Small is defined as <75% of the threshold size used to determine whether EIA is needed (DoE
1989), large as >125% of the threshold size, and medium as between the two.

prior experience; Kobus & Lee (1993) cited 43 and 14 per cent respectively. A study by
Lee & Dancey (1993) showed that of EISs prepared by authors with prior experience of
four or more, 68 per cent were satisfactory compared with 24 per cent of those with no
prior experience. The DoE (1996) study showed that of the EISs prepared by consultants
with experience of five or fewer, about 50 per cent were satisfactory, compared with
about 85 per cent of those prepared by consultants with experience of eight or more. EISs
prepared for local authorities with no prior EIS experience were just over one-third
satisfactory, compared with two-thirds for local authorities with experience of eight or
more (DoE 1996).
Other determinants of EISs' quality include the availability of EIA guidance and
legislation, more guidance (e.g. DoE 1995, DoT 1993, local authority guides such as
those of Kent and Essex (Essex Planning Officers' Association 2001)) leading to better
EISs; the stage in project planning at which the development application and EIA are
submitted, EISs for detailed planning applications generally being better than those for
outline applications; and issues related to the interaction between the parties involved in
the EIA process, including commitment to EIA, the resources allocated to the EIA and
communication between the parties. There are also more EISs in the public domain to
provide evidence of good practice.
Environmental impact statement length also shows some correlation with EIS quality.
For instance, Lee & Brown (1992) showed that the percentage of satisfactory EISs rose
from 10 for EISs less than 25 pages long to 78 for those more than 100 pages long. In the
DoE (1996) study, quality was shown to rise from an average of E/F for EISs of less than
20 pages to C for those of over 50 pages. However, as EISs became much longer than
150 pages, quality became more variable: although the very large EISs may contain more
information, their length seems to be a symptom of poor organization and coordination.
Cashmore et al. (2002) had similar findings from a study of EISs in a case study in