Scotland’s Low Emission Zones Regulations presented to Parliament

The next milestone in the programme for Scotland’s Low Emission Zones has seen the proposed regulations laid in the Scottish Parliament on 20 January 2021.

This formal presentation allows them to be scrutinised by MSPs.

Low Emission Zones (LEZs) to improve air quality are to be introduced across Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen between February 2022 and May 2022.

Whilst the Scottish Government provides the framework for LEZs in Scotland, each local authority is responsible for designing and implementing LEZs for their individual city.

There are two sets of regulations for LEZs:

• The Low Emission Zones (Emission Standards, Exemptions and Enforcement) (Scotland) Regulations 2021. These regulations cover the topics of emission standards, exemptions, penalty charge rates, and enforcement.
• The Low Emission Zones (Scotland) Regulations 2021. These regulations cover the topics of consultation, publication and representations, examinations, approved devices, and accounts.

The regulations were finalised following a consultation which asked questions about key aspects of LEZ regulations and guidance, particularly views on emission standards, exemptions and penalty charges.

To support the development of the LEZ regulations, various independent impact assessments were carried out by Jacobs, consultants to Transport Scotland. These included:

• Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) covering Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA), Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment (CRWIA) and the Fairer Scotland Duty (FSD)
• Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)
• Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) screening
• Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA).

You can view these on the Transport Scotland website here.