Publications

Institutionalisation of health impact assessment. A systematic scoping review and development of a descriptive conceptual framework

Liz Green and Kathryn Ashton of the Wales Health Impact Assessment Support Unit (WHIASU) recently published an article titled ‘Institutionalisation of health impact assessment. A systematic scoping review and development of a descriptive conceptual framework’ in the journal of Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal.

The paper is the first practical framework for the field/other nation states/organisations to use to measure how mature they are (or not) in HIA. It highlights the enablers and barriers and the 4 key stages of HIA institutionalisation, namely: advocacy, adoption, implementation and finally institutionalisation. These are mapped against a practical ‘wall of institutionalisation’ which contains the critical activities, factors and facilitators needed for institutionalising HIA. Other nation states and organisations can use these to measure themselves against to identify how mature they are (or not) in the path to institutionalisation and critical factors they presently have or need to strive for.

Health Impact Assessment (Wales) Regulations 2025: A guide for public bodies in Wales

This guide provides step-by-step support to public bodies required to carry out HIAs under the HIA regulations in Wales. The Guide:

• Explains the legal requirements and when an HIA is needed
• Sets out a clear process and steps to follow, from start to finish
• Includes practical tools, templates, and examples to help ensure compliance and transparency.

This guidance is designed to help you understand the Regulations, but it should not be treated as a comprehensive or full explanation of the law in this area. From 06 April 2027, it is the responsibility of the relevant organisations and individuals to make sure they comply.

You should always check the full legislation and consider getting independent legal or professional advice if you’re unsure about your obligations.

Health Impact Assessment (HIA): A practical guide for voluntary best practice in Wales

This guide is designed for organisations and practitioners who wish to undertake a HIA voluntarily as part of good practice. The guide:
• Encourages the proactive, best practice use of HIA to strengthen decision-making and consider inequalities
• Is not limited to strategic decisions but is suitable for a range of decisions
• Outlines the HIA process and flexible methods that can be tailored to projects, policies, or plans of any scale
• Promotes a participatory approach by engaging with stakeholders to identify a wide range of positive and unintended negative impacts.

Health Impact Assessment (HIA): Population Groups and Wider Determinants of Health and Well-being

This resource is for use during the Screening and Evidence Appraisal steps of a HIA to identify the wider determinants, and population groups who could be impacted by a policy/project/proposal. This resource is just a guide and is not exhaustive. It is acknowledged that terminology can change over time.

Health Impact Assessment (HIA): Screening Record Sheet

This Screening record sheet can be used at the Screening step of the HIA process to help guide and record discussions. This is to be used alongside the Population Groups and Wider Determinants of Health and Well-being resource.

This document has been designed to be downloaded to your computer. The document will need to opened in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded for free from https://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/

Please note that, without Acrobat, you will be able to view the document but you will not be able to add your own information or save the file.

Health Impact Assessment (HIA): Scoping Template

This resource can be used during the Scoping step of the HIA process. Guidance notes are provided at the end of this resource to support completion. Ideally, the scoping should be completed by more than one individual.

The scoping step determines the project management, governance, process, objectives, focus and scale of a HIA. It also contributes to fulfilling key values and principles that underpin the implementation of HIA including transparency, participation and robustness.

This document has been designed to be downloaded to your computer. The document will need to opened in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded for free from https://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/

Please note that, without Acrobat, you will be able to view the document but you will not be able to add your own information or save the file.

Health Impact Assessment (HIA): Example participatory workshop agenda

This is an example agenda which can be used when running a participatory workshop at either the Screening step or the Evidence Appraisal step of the HIA.

Health Impact Assessment (HIA): Participatory Workshop Recording Template

This template can be used at the Evidence Appraisal step of the HIA process to help record discussions during a participatory workshop. This is to be used alongside the Population Groups and Wider Determinants of Health and Well-being resource.

This document has been designed to be downloaded to your computer. The document will need to opened in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded for free from https://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/

Please note that, without Acrobat, you will be able to view the document but you will not be able to add your own information or save the file.

Rapid Participatory Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of the Introduction of a National Lung Cancer Screening Programme in Wales

This HIA report was undertaken by the Lung Cancer Screening Project Team, consisting of representatives from across the NHS, which was supported by the Wales Health Impact Assessment Support Unit (WHIASU), through the facilitation of a HIA participatory workshop. The project team was established in April 2024, with the final report being published in September 2025. The rapid participatory HIA, concentrated on gathering Welsh stakeholder knowledge and insight into the proposed introduction of a national lung cancer screening programme from the perspective of both the service users and those involved with the delivery of the service.

This report gives a background to the project and to HIA itself, before looking at the Participatory HIA workshop in more detail, which was carried out in October 2024, showing what population groups were identified and the determinants of health individually, using WHIASUs Population Groups and Determinants of Health checklists. The report suggests that the National Lung Cancer Screening Programme has the potential to highly benefit the population of Wales, by identifying lung cancers early and through the integrated promotion of smoking cessation services. In addition, the report also highlights the work necessary to ensure that an accessible and equitable screening programme is delivered.

Safer inhalation devices: a rapid Health Impact Assessment of a harm reduction pilot for people who smoke crack cocaine

This study explores how a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) was used to evaluate a proposed harm reduction pilot programme in Wales providing safer inhalation devices (SIDs) for people who smoke crack cocaine, a group facing significant health risks and lacking targeted harm reduction services. Through stakeholder engagement, including people with lived experience, the HIA identified potential benefits such as reduced risk of infections, safer equipment use, and improved engagement with services, alongside challenges like resource pressures and access issues.

Overall, the findings highlight that an SID pilot could help reduce health inequalities and stigma, while demonstrating the value of HIA in shaping inclusive, evidence-informed public health interventions and guiding future implementation and evaluation.

Trade, Trade Agreements and Tariffs and the Impact on Health, Well-being and Equity in Wales

This briefing paper, developed by the Wales Health Impact Assessment Support Unit (WHIASU), discusses the potential health, well-being and equity impacts of trade tariffs on the Welsh population. It is aimed at stakeholders in Wales working in the areas of trade, public health and health services to support them to better understand the potential impacts that trade tariffs can have on population health.

It begins with a brief introduction to trade agreements and to tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade. It then outlines the most recent trade deals the United Kingdom (UK) has signed up to before discussing how tariffs can affect population health, well-being and equity in Wales. It concludes with some options on how health and well-being can be better considered in trade agreements and identifying the impacts of tariffs. Finally, it presents two case study examples of how trade can impact the people and economy in Wales.

Planning Healthy Places: A guide for local authorities in Wales for embedding health in planning policy

This guidance aims to support those working across urban and rural local authorities in Wales to consider, include and promote health and wellbeing through Local Development Plans (LDPs) and the planning system. It provides evidence and guidance about how this can be achieved and why the links between planning and health are so important. The guide can form the basis of an evidence background paper for LDPs or supplementary planning guidance (SPG) and includes five sections.

Delivering public health and well-being priorities through Local Development Plans (LDPs) in Wales

This report presents a summary of the methods and key findings of a review of how health is included in case study Local Development Plans (LDPs) in Wales and the effectiveness of LDPs in supporting the delivery of health and well-being priorities. The report is intended to inform and support the Wales Health Impact Assessment Support Unit.

Urban health policies of Wales’ local authorities

An investigation of public health considerations in the Local Development Plans of Wales’ 22 local authorities

Urban health policies of Wales’ national park authorities

An investigation of public health considerations in the Local Development Plans of Wales’s three national park authorities.