Regulators and reviewers

An officer reviewing submitted Environmental Statements reads each one against the same requirements by hand, and consistency across a caseload depends on memory. EcoSphere checks every submission against the same standard and shows the officer the quoted passages behind each finding, so the basis for each decision is on record.

For each requirement the artificial intelligence quotes the passages it finds in the submission, with the document and paragraph, and the officer decides the finding. Where the assessment was prepared in EcoSphere, its consultation matrix shows where each consultee matter is answered, and each scoping decision carries the reason it was made.

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Checking a submission against the consenting regime

The review is set up as a submission review against the regulations the application is made under.

For the Hartsmoor application that is the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017. The applicant’s duties in the regulations become the requirements the submission is checked against, and the officer sees the evidence for each one.

Regulatory coverage

The card for regulation 14(2)(e) of the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017, the non-technical summary, marked Partially addressed with the proposed finding Information request, what the evidence review found, the cause, consequence and corrective action, and the first quoted passages with the documents they came from. — A requirement of the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 checked against the submitted Environmental Statement: the non-technical summary is referred to but was not submitted, so the evidence review proposes an information request. Hartsmoor Solar Farm is a fictional demo project.

The passages behind each finding

The officer opens a requirement and reads the passages quoted from the submission, each with the document and section it came from.

The finding is the officer’s. Where it departs from what the evidence review reported, the reason is recorded with it, so the basis of every decision across the caseload can be read back.

How a review runs

A reviewer opens a requirement of the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017, reads what the evidence review found, and scrolls through the passages quoted from the submission, each with the document and section it came from.

The consultation record

The consultation responses submitted with the application are read with the chapters, so a requirement about consultation is checked against what consultees said.

Where the assessment was prepared in EcoSphere, its consultation matrix also records who raised each matter, in which round, and where the Environmental Statement answers it.

Commitments and consultation

Consultation matrix rows showing who raised each matter, the round, the issue and where it is addressed in the Environmental Statement. — The consultation matrix, showing where the Environmental Statement addresses each consultee matter.

Requests for further information

A request to the applicant is tied to the requirements it will answer, with a due date.

The request moves from draft to sent, responded and closed, and the applicant’s response is uploaded against it so the next pass of the evidence review reads it.

The Requests tab of a submission review listing request RFI-001 with its title, the two linked regulations, the date sent, the due date and the status Sent, and the open request below with its text. — An information request to the applicant for the non-technical summary and the statement of competent experts, tied to the two regulations it will answer, with its due date and the status Sent.

The record of the review

Findings, gaps and requests export to a workbook with the source of each row.

The workbook lists the requirements, the findings, the gaps and any conditions, each with where it came from, so the review can be examined or handed to the next officer.

Reviewing a submitted application

The Findings and actions screen listing the gaps raised in the review, each with a reference, severity, the requirement it relates to, the corrective action, the owner, the due date and the status. — The gap register, which is also the action plan: each gap with its severity, the corrective action, who owns it, when it is due and its status.

See EcoSphere in a demo

A walkthrough on a sample review.

We show a submitted assessment reviewed against a standard, from the evidence for each requirement to the Gap Assessment Report.