The environmental appraisal information in the STAG Report should include a discussion of what the likely environmental effects may be and the extent to which these effects have been investigated. The methodologies used should be described and data sources listed. Particular attention should be given to explaining the indicators and significance criteria used in evaluating the impacts. Any mitigation measures that have been developed to remove or reduce the adverse effects should be outlined.
The distribution of environmental impacts should be identified. Depending on the context, the distribution of impacts by social group and/or geographic area might be considered important.
The results of the appraisal of environmental impacts should be presented in a manner which will assist decision makers and summarised in the Part 2 AST.
In order to provide confidence about the objectivity of the assessment underlying this summary, worksheets or working papers should be prepared for each topic and summarised within the report. These should not be included within the STAG Report although it would be expected that they could be called upon for audit or enquiry purposes at a later stage.
