About PREMIAM
The PREMIAM Pollution Response in Emergencies: Marine Impact Assessment and Monitoring programme began as a Defra-funded initiative to strengthen the UK's approach to post-incident environmental monitoring, with a particular focus on improving scientific guidance and coordination.
Since then, PREMIAM has evolved into an established cross-government collaborative programme, providing a long-term approach for continually improving the UK's preparedness and capability for environmental monitoring following marine pollution incidents.
The programme is coordinated by marine pollution emergency response and impact assessment specialists at Cefas (Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science) and is supported by key government stakeholders. PREMIAM also brings together the wider scientific, environmental and emergency response communities, drawing on their collective expertise and experience to strengthen post-incident monitoring and ensure that environmental decisions are supported by robust scientific evidence.
PREMIAM supports the UK’s wider marine pollution response arrangements set out in the National Contingency Plan (NCP), providing the scientific coordination mechanisms for post-incident environmental monitoring and impact assessment. This helps ensure that monitoring is proportionate, coordinated and scientifically robust, and that the evidence generated can inform response, recovery and longer-term environmental management.
Protecting the marine environment through effective post-incident monitoring
When a marine pollution incident happens, understanding what has been affected and how the environment is recovering, requires the right science, in the right place, at the right time.
PREMIAM Pollution Response in Emergencies: Marine Impact Assessment and Monitoring, provides the guidelines for effective environmental monitoring following marine pollution incidents.
Coordinated by Cefas, PREMIAM brings together government, regulators, environmental organisations, scientists and emergency response specialists to help ensure that environmental monitoring is prepared, coordinated, proportionate and scientifically robust.
From incident to recovery
Marine pollution incidents can vary enormously in their scale, location and environmental consequences. Oil, chemicals, plastic pellets and other pollutants can affect marine and coastal environments in very different ways.
Effective monitoring helps us understand:
- Where has the pollution gone?
- What environmental receptors have been exposed?
- Has contamination occurred?
- Are there measurable environmental impacts?
- How effective have response and clean-up activities been?
- Is the environment recovering, and when is sufficient evidence available to conclude monitoring?
PREMIAM provides a structured approach for answering these questions while ensuring that monitoring effort is targeted where it can provide the greatest value.
From preparedness to recovery
PREMIAM supports effective environmental monitoring throughout the response: helping organisations prepare, coordinate monitoring, understand environmental impacts and assess recovery.
The PREMIAM Guidelines
At the heart of the programme are the PREMIAM Guidelines, which provide practical guidance for planning, coordinating and delivering post-incident environmental monitoring.
The Guidelines support users through the monitoring process from the first hours and days of an incident through to longer-term impact assessment and recovery.
They cover areas including:
- monitoring strategy and survey design;
- determining environmental recovery and monitoring end-points
- sampling of water, sediments and biota;
- habitats and ecological effects;
- chemical and biological assessment;
- quality assurance and data management;
- interpretation of environmental evidence; and
- communications and reporting.
Coordinating the UK monitoring response
PREMIAM also provides the framework for the PREMIAM Monitoring Coordination Cell (PMCC).
Where activated, the PMCC brings together relevant organisations and expertise to coordinate environmental monitoring following a significant marine pollution incident.
Working alongside the wider incident response structure, the PMCC helps translate environmental monitoring requirements into a coherent, practical and scientifically defensible monitoring programme, from survey design and sampling through to analysis, interpretation and reporting.
A collaborative programme
PREMIAM is coordinated by Cefas and supported by organisations from across UK government and the wider marine pollution response and scientific communities.
This collaborative approach helps maintain national capability, share expertise and ensure that lessons from incidents, exercises and scientific developments continue to improve the UK's approach to post-incident environmental monitoring.
Effective environmental monitoring starts before a spill happens.
Explore the PREMIAM Guidelines, resources and supporting information to understand how PREMIAM can help your organisation prepare for, respond to and learn from marine pollution incidents.
For further information or to get involved with PREMIAM, contact:
premiam@cefas.co.uk