Recommendation for Minimum Criteria for Environmental Inspections

 

Introduction
In 2001 the European Parliament and the Council adopted the Recommendation providing for minimum criteria for environmental inspections (RMCEI). The purpose of the RMCEI is to strengthen compliance with, and to contribute to a more consistent implementation and enforcement of Community environmental law in all EU Member States.
The RMCEI establishes criteria for environmental inspections of installations, other enterprises and facilities whose air emissions, water discharges or waste disposal or recovery activities are subject to authorisation, permit or licensing requirements under Community law ('controlled installations'). All inspecting authorities in the EU Member States should apply these criteria.
Planning of inspection activities is a key requirement of the RMCEI. Planning is about defining and explaining as accurate as possible beforehand the work we are going to do, so that we can perform in an effective, efficient, transparent and accountable way.
The RMCEI is currently being reviewed by the European Commission.

Doing the right things
Within the IMPEL network and under the project title “Doing the right things” the Netherlands (VROM Inspectorate) developed a step-by-step guidance book for planning of environmental inspections. This guidance book was developed to support inspecting authorities in carrying out that difficult task. It helps to pose the right questions and suggests ways for finding the right answers.

The guidance book takes as starting point the Environmental Inspection Cycle, which for the purpose of this guidance book consists out of the following seven steps:

1. Describing the context
2. Setting priorities
3. Defining objectives and strategies
4. Planning and review
5. Execution framework
6. Execution and reporting
7. Performance monitoring

The first four steps from the Environmental Inspection Cycle form the Planning Cycle. In short the Planning Cycle can be described as follows. The output of the Planning Cycle is the inspection plan. In order to write the inspection plan the inspecting authority first has to identify the relevant activities that should be covered by the inspection plan and gather information on these activities. With this information the inspecting authority can perform an assessment of the risks of the identified activities and assign priorities to these activities. Typical criteria that are taken into account when setting priorities are environmental impact, compliance record, legal obligations to inspect, (national) policies and objectives and available resources. The priorities indicate what activities should get (the highest) attention. A following step is to define (measurable) inspection objectives and targets for the activities to be inspected and to choose the best inspection strategy to accomplish these targets.

All these steps contribute to the inspection plan. The inspection plan clearly indicates the time period and area it covers. An inspection plan outlines the context in which the inspecting authority performs its inspections. It describes the mission and objectives of the inspecting authority, its statutory tasks and inspection obligations and (national) policies to be implemented. An inspection plan furthermore gives an overview of the priorities that have been assigned and explains why and how these priorities were set. The plan also gives general information on inspection targets, strategies, procedures and the planned inspection activities themselves. The inspection schedule describes what, where, when and by whom the different types of inspection activities will be executed. The inspection plan and the inspection schedule need to be reviewed and - when appropriate - revised periodically.

FAQ’s
We are developing some frequently asked questions (FAQ) and we will place these on this website as soon as available.

Good practices

• Ireland EPA Methodology for determining enforcement category of licences (scheme)
• Ireland EPA Guidance
• Ireland EPA Summery
• Portugal / NL general RA (password = risk)
• Portugal / NL detailed RA (password = risk)
• The Netherlands Compliance strategy of the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment
• Sweden Risk Assessment of inspecting objects
• UK EP-OPRA

Publications
Step-by step guidance book for planning of environmental inspection