Step 5: Reviewing HIA Report

For projects that have commissioned a full HIA

The project team should check that the HIA meets any terms of reference agreed, providing sufficient detail on the potential impacts examined, methods used, and that recommendations are justified. Regarding recommendations, the project team may want to discuss these with the authors of the HIA report to establish a feasible plan of action to implement recommendations or record why recommendations cannot be acted on. The project manager or senior responsible officer should sign off the HIA report and action plan once agreed.

It is good practice to produce a summary of the report and distribute this with the full report to reach a wider audience. The project team, or the team who conducted the HIA, may want to disseminate findings through other routes such as presentations, meetings and articles in local newsletters or other media.

Members of the Scottish Health and Inequalities Impact Assessment Network (SHIIAN) are also encouraged to share their HIAs with the network, for peer support and sharing of results, learning and experiences. SHIIAN can be contacted if teams wish to discuss their planned or completed HIAs. In keeping with the principles of HIA, we recommend completed HIAs are made publicly available online.

The underpinning principles of a comprehensive approach to health, sustainability, participation, equity, and ethical use of evidence help to ensure consistency and quality of HIAs and assessment of quality should be part of the HIA process. The Health Impact Assessment Support Unit (HIASU) appraisal template (Word doc, 25 KB)(opens new window) can be used to support assessment of HIA quality.  

For projects that did not progress past the CHIA screening workshop

• Where health impacts were identified but captured by other impact assessments, ensure these impact assessments have sufficiently explored these impacts.
• Agree an action plan to implement any changes needed based on the recommendations in any other impact assessments.
• The project manager or senior responsible officer should then sign off the CHIA process and action plan once agreed.