ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the legislative framework within which EIA is carried out in the UK. It begins with an outline of the principal actors involved in EIA and in the associated planning and development process. It follows with an overview of relevant regulations and the types of project to which they apply, then of the EIA procedures required by the Town and Country Planning (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1988 and the 1998 amendments. These can be considered the "generic" EIA regulations, which apply to most projects and provide a model for the other EIA regulations. The latter are then summarized. Readers should refer to Chapter 8 for a discussion of the main effects and limitations of the application of these regulations.
