DLA retains EIA Quality Mark

Following a review of DLA's Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) activities by the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA), we have retained IEMA's prestigious EIA Quality Mark. This is a scheme that allows those organisations that co-ordinate EIAs to make a public commitment to achieving excellence in their EIA activities and to have that commitment independently reviewed. In awarding us the EIA Quality Mark, IEMA interviewed three of our senior staff involved in EIA activities and reviewed one of our recently submitted Environmental Statements. IEMA commended our EIA activities: "Team capabilities are well developed. Staff development is supported through excellent training opportunities and mentoring. The EIA lead plays an important role in the company. Also, there is an excellent approach in ensuring consistency". Co-ordinating EIAs of larger scale development proposals is an important element of our work, in which we have extensive experience. We focus in particular on ensuring that measures identified as being necessary through EIA are seamlessly integrated into the design of development proposals and that the effective delivery of those measures is secured through conditions or obligations attached to grants of planning permission. We have a 5-strong EIA Centre of Excellence that leads our EIA work, ensuring we remain abreast of best practice and enabling excellence in all of our EIA activities.