Nicola Gordon

Scottish Environment Protection Agency

Our purpose is to protect and improve the environment in ways that, as far as possible, also help create health and wellbeing benefits and sustainable economic growth. We are a non-departmental public body, accountable to Scottish Ministers and the Scottish Parliament, and an independent advisor on the environment. We have 1,2512 employees working in 22 offices, giving us a geographical presence across the whole of Scotland, from the Highlands and Islands to the Borders. We regulate and advise on a wide range of environmental activities. We help business and industry to understand and comply with their environmental responsibilities and legislation and have a range of enforcement powers which we can apply to ensure that regulations are complied with. We take tens of thousands of samples every year from land, water and air, analysing them in the field and in our laboratories to help assess the quality of our environment. Our services include: monitoring and reporting on the state of our environment, working with partners to promote sustainable resource use, environmental regulation, responding to environmental emergencies and providing a range of public warning systems, including our flood warning and guidance service and bathing water quality forecasts. We also operate the Radioactive Incident Monitoring Network and the Airborne Hazards Emergency Response service. We recognise the context we are working in as an environment protection agency is changing. A fundamental challenge for the 21st century is the over-use of resources and the need to find ways to create social and economic success within planetary constraints. For us, one example of this changing context is that whilst there are still compliance challenges, many of those we regulate are increasingly recognising the value of going beyond compliance. They recognise the positive outcomes that this can bring not just to the environment but to their business and the communities they operate in.