Public Review and Consultation Process for Environmental Impact Assessments

Ms He Ting Ru asked the Minister for National Development with regard to concerns raised about the accessibility of environmental impact assessments (EIAs) that are made available to the public for review, whether there are plans to standardise the public review and consultation process to allow for online access to the reports and have consultations where their durations commensurate with the complexity of each EIA to allow for in-depth study of the report in order to provide meaningful feedback.

We adopt a systematic framework to determine and mitigate the potential impact of new developments on the environment. Environmental studies, like Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), may be required as part of the planning process. This helps to inform our understanding of the development’s potential environmental impact and the adequacy of the proposed mitigation measures.

The Government is committed to ensuring transparency and involving the public in the EIA process. EIA reports are made publicly available online, unless there are specific reasons to maintain confidentiality, like security considerations. In such cases, we will consider on a case-by-case basis if the full report should be made public and the modality for such disclosure, such as making the report available for hard copy viewing.

The public feedback period for EIA reports is typically four weeks, which provides adequate time for the public to view the report and provide feedback. Where necessary, the feedback period can be extended on a case-by-case basis.