Unconventional Gas (UG): Public Health Impact Assessment (PHIA). Report of a PHIA scoping workshop with public sector agency professionals held on Monday 23 November 2015

This is the report of a scoping workshop held for community group representatives and other stakeholders as part of the PHIA process being coordinated by Health Protection Scotland, on behalf of the Scottish Government.

Three workshops were held in November 2015 to identify key issues to be considered in the Public Health Impact Assessment (PHIA) of Unconventional Gas (defined as including unconventional oil and coal bed methane) in Scotland.

Separate events were held for representatives from:

1. community groups and other stakeholders (defined as non-industry and non-public sector organisations);
2. UG industry representatives and
3. public sector agency professionals who would be required to respond to applications for UG developments and/ or give advice to local communities regarding such developments.

The purpose of the workshops was to identify the issues of particular concern to each group of stakeholders and not to identify, assess or evaluate specific evidence associated with these issues.

The issues highlighted in each event were to be used by the HPS UG PHIA Working Group (WG), as part of the PHIA process, to help set the scope for the review of evidence.