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As part of its principal aim of contributing towards achieving the objective of sustainable development the Environment Agency in England and Wales established a National Centre for Risk Analysis and Options Appraisal in 1997. This paper describes a key area of the Centre's work over the past four years, namely the development of an approach for integrated appraisal. This approach has been developed jointly by EIA specialists, economists, a social psychologist and an expert in technology assessment. There have been several opportunities for developing tools and techniques for internal use and the Agency has also been able to advise and inform others, particularly the Central and regional governments. This paper aims to summarise some of these case studies for the benefit of a wider audience. Significant challenges remain, not least because there are few role models to follow and relatively little published literature on the subject of integrated appraisal. Challenges are methodological, procedural and institutional. The paper recommends the term "integrated appraisal" as the umbrella term under which many other approaches (variously termed) fit and develops a checklist of questions to be asked.

In the build-up to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Meeting in November 1999, and its aftermath, considerable interest has been expressed in the likely economic, environmental and social effects of trade liberalisation on sustainable development. This article explores the methodological challenges which are faced when undertaking a sustainability impact assessment (SIA) at different stages in multilateral trade negotiations. The article draws upon the authors' experiences when undertaking a preliminary SIA in advance of the proposed WTO New Round, and explores how the methodology used might need to be elaborated for use in later stages of the negotiating process. Given existing methodological deficiencies and data shortages, it points to some of the dangers in being over-ambitious and proposes, as an interim solution, the more detailed and specific application of "simpler" methods already in use.

This paper describes the development of a simple integrated approach to policy appraisal for use within the Environment Agency for England and Wales. The approach was developed by the Environment Agency's National Centre for Risk Analysis and Options Appraisal, and is intended as a first version of a tool to allow policy makers in the Agency to consider the possible environmental, social, economic and resource use impacts of the policy options available to manage risks, and to allow the monitoring of impacts of policy options selected.

The context within which the approach was developed is discussed — including existing literature on, and experience of, policy and integrated appraisal respectively, as well as the needs and resources of the Environment Agency with respect to policy appraisal. The paper provides a description of the approach developed before highlighting issues for further development.

The guidance summarised here is version 1, which is being rolled out for use by policy authors within the Agency in 2000 and 2001. The process will inevitably be iterative and it is intended over the next two years, following further application and road testing, that subsequent versions of the guidance will be produced.