Section 66 – Mitigation of environmental impact
219.Section 66 imposes a positive duty on the Scottish Ministers regarding the environmental impacts of the Forth Crossing works (see section 1). The environmental statement (as defined in section 79) proposes certain mitigation measures. The effect of these measures will be to prevent or reduce environmental impacts being caused by the works. This section obliges the Scottish Ministers to do everything that is reasonably practicable to ensure that the environmental impacts of the construction or operation of the Forth Crossing works are no worse than the residual impacts identified in the environmental statement (the residual impacts are measurable environmental impacts).