The scale of development projects included in offsets programmes can vary considerably. In some cases, offsets may be required for relatively small-scale local government planning applications whereas in other programmes, offsets focus only on very large developments with major impacts on biodiversity. The legislative requirements for biodiversity offsets in the European Union, for example, have in recent years covered approximately 10% of the area of land used for development (ICF GHK and BIO Intelligence Service, 2013).