Completion certificates
4.—(1) Where, after giving a stop notice to a reservoir manager, SEPA is satisfied that the reservoir manager has taken the steps specified in the notice, SEPA must give a certificate to that effect (a “completion certificate”).
(2) The stop notice ceases to have effect on the giving of a completion certificate.
(3) The reservoir manager to whom the stop notice is given may at any time apply for a completion certificate.
(4) SEPA must make a decision as to whether to give a completion certificate before the end of a period of 14 days beginning with the day on which the application for the certificate was made.
(5) Where SEPA decides to give a completion certificate, it must give the completion certificate to the reservoir manager within a period of 14 days beginning with the day of that decision.
(6) Where SEPA decides not to give a completion certificate, it must give the reservoir manager notice in writing of that decision within a period of 14 days beginning with the day of that decision.
(7) The reservoir manager to whom the stop notice is given may appeal to the Scottish Ministers against a decision not to give a completion certificate.
(8) The appeal must be made within a period of 14 days beginning with the relevant day.
(9) The appeal may be made on any ground including that—
(a)the decision was based on an error of fact;
(b)the decision was wrong in law; or
(c)the decision was unfair or unreasonable.
(10) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (7), a failure by SEPA, before the end of a period of 28 days beginning with the day on which the application for the certificate was made, to—
(a)make a decision as to whether to give the certificate; and
(b)comply with, as the case may be, sub-paragraph (5) or (6),
is to be treated as a decision not to give the completion certificate in question.
(11) In sub-paragraph (8), “the relevant day”—
(a)in a case where sub-paragraph (10) applies, is the first day on which the failure in question is treated as a decision not to give the completion certificate; and
(b)in other cases, is the day on which the reservoir manager is, in accordance with sub-paragraph (6), given notice of the decision not to give a completion certificate.