The Environmental Impact Assessment (Uncultivated Land and Semi-Natural Areas) (Scotland) Regulations 2002

Reinstatement

24.—(1) Where it appears to the Scottish Ministers that an offence has been committed under regulations 19, 20 or 21, they may serve a notice (“a reinstatement notice”) upon the person who appears to them to be responsible for committing the offence requiring that person to reinstate, to their reasonable satisfaction, the relevant land to the condition it was in before the project was commenced and specifying the period within which the reinstatement is required to be carried out.

(2) Where the condition of the relevant land before the project was commenced cannot be determined with reasonable accuracy or where it is not possible to return the relevant land to the same condition it was in before the project commenced, the reinstatement notice shall impose such requirements for the purposes of reinstatement as shall, in the opinion of the Scottish Ministers (after consultation with such of the consultation bodies as they think fit), be reasonable in the circumstances.

(3) A person served with a notice under paragraph (1) above may, within 21 days from the date on which the notice is served, appeal to the sheriff by way of summary application on any of the following grounds:–

(a) that the notice or any requirement in the notice is not within the power conferred by this regulation;

(b) that there has been some material informality, defect or error in, or in connection with, the notice; or

(c) that any of the requirements of the notice are unreasonable.

(4) Where an appeal by summary application is made in accordance with this regulation, the reinstatement notice shall be of no effect until the date of determination or abandonment of the summary application or any appeal therefrom by the applicant or the appellant, as the case may be.

(5) For the purposes of paragraph (4) above, the “date of determination” means–

(a) in the case of an appeal from the sheriff or where there is a further right of appeal in relation to that determination, the date of expiry of the period within which an appeal may be taken; or

(b) in the case where there is no such right of appeal, the date of final determination.

(6) If any person, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with any requirement of a reinstatement notice served under paragraph (1) above, that person shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction–

(a) to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale; and

(b) if the failure is continued after conviction, to a further fine not exceeding one twentieth of the sum equivalent to level 5 on the standard scale for every day on which the failure is so continued.