{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/environmental-regulation-significant-environmental-harm-scotland-order-2014/note",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/environmental-regulation-significant-environmental-harm-scotland-order-2014/note.json",
  "legislation": "ssi/2014/324",
  "legislation_title": "The Environmental Regulation (Significant Environmental Harm) (Scotland) Order 2014",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/environmental-regulation-significant-environmental-harm-scotland-order-2014",
  "path": "note",
  "kind": "note",
  "number": null,
  "heading": "Explanatory note",
  "text": "(This note is not part of the Order)\nThis Order specifies enactments under section 40(6)(c) of the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (“the Act”).\nSection 40(1) of the Act creates offences relating to causing significant environmental harm. Section 40(6) of the Act provides the Scottish Ministers with a power to specify enactments for the purposes of a defence to section 40(1).\nThe effect of this Order is that it will be a defence for a person charged with an offence under section 40(1) of the Act to show that the acts or failures alleged to constitute the offence were authorised by, or otherwise carried out in accordance with, an enactment specified in the Schedule to this Order. The enactments in the Schedule cover a range of environmental authorisations, registrations, permits or exemptions with which a person may be able to show compliance. These include:\nLandfill permits\nOffshore chemical permits\nDischarge permits\nPart A and Part B pollution prevention and control permits\nWaste management licences\nRegistrations relating to use of radioactive material and mobile radioactive apparatus\nAuthorisations of disposal and accumulation of radioactive waste\nExemptions under the Radioactive Substances Exemptions (Scotland) Order 2011\nWaste management exemptions under regulation 17 of the Waste Management Licensing (Scotland) Regulations 2011\nAuthorisations under the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011, including the general binding rules.\nLicences for deposits in the sea\nNuclear site licences\nDischarges in compliance with the Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Oil Pollution) Regulations 1996 and Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution by Sewage and Garbage from Ships) Regulations 2008\nSpecies licences under section 16 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981\nMuirburn licences",
  "extent": "S",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2014/324/note",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-31T10:30:17.357469+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}