Scoping Document

9. Monitoring

9.1As per the current adopted minerals plan, we propose that the new plan will conclude with a monitoring chapter. However, we anticipate this will look different as we are now required to monitor progress towards the vision and measurable outcomes through an annual monitoring report and a four – year plan evaluation report.

9.2The annual monitoring report will:

• Monitor the plan against a list of nationally prescribed metrics to assess how policies are being implemented
• Look at the implementation of the plan against the measurable outcomes, with each policy required to be linked to delivering an outcome

9.3The four – year plan evaluation report should help prepare the commencement of a new plan, with regulations^[3] now requiring the preparation of new Plan every 5 - years. This report will consider what elements of the Plan should be replaced, amended or carried forward. Even if policies are carried forward, they will still be subject to consultation and examination.

9.4The monitoring section of the Plan therefore needs to be able to provide the required information for both the annual report and 4 – year evaluation report. Our proposed approach is that for each policy we identify:

• The measurable outcome it is linked to
• What information is needed to assess the policy performance towards delivering the outcome and vision
• What would trigger the policy needing to be replaced or amended at the four – year plan evaluation stage.

9.5It is expected further guidance on monitoring will be published, which will be incorporated into the monitoring chapter in future versions of the Plan.

9.6We are also required to, under the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), monitor the significant environmental effects of the implementation of the Plan. How this will be handled will be addressed in future SEA reports.