56.This section makes provision for the Scottish Ministers’ approval of river basin management plans.
57.Subsection (1) provides that once a river basin management plan has been submitted to them, the Scottish Ministers may approve the plan or reject it. They may approve the whole of the plan or part of it and may do so with or without modifications. Subsection (3) requires the Scottish Ministers to state their reasons for such a decision.
58.Subsection (2) allows the Scottish Ministers to seek further information or undertake such other investigations and consultation as they consider appropriate before determining whether to approve or reject a plan.
59.Subsection (4) provides for the circumstances in which the Scottish Ministers reject a plan. In that case, they must return the plan to SEPA and direct it to resubmit the plan with any modifications they may specify together with any further changes that SEPA considers appropriate. The Scottish Ministers may direct the timescale in which a plan must be resubmitted.
60.Subsection (5) requires SEPA, when a river basin management plan has been approved, to publicise the approved plan as it thinks fit. It must also make copies of it available for public inspection and for sale at a reasonable price. SEPA must also publicise the publication of the approved plan and the arrangements for making copies of it available for public inspection.