Environmental Permit

An Environmental Permit is a legal document issued by one of the regulatory Environment Agencies throughout the UK which allows a person to operate a facility in line with certain conditions that are determined as part of the conditions to the Permit. The conditions state how the environment must always be protected from the operation of the activity at the regulated facility.

Introduction

An Environmental Permit is needed when an activity is being carried out that has the potential to: pollute the air, water or land, increase flood risk or adversely affect land drainage. It is illegal to undertake an activity that requires a permit but has not been granted one.

There are three types of Environmental Permit:

• Bespoke – for large installations, facilities, complex or tailored activities which do not fit the criteria for standard rules permit.
• Standard – a set of fixed rules for common activities.
• Exemption – do not need a specific ‘permit’ but operators are still required to register the activity with the regulator.

Operators of all Environmental Permits are required to pay annual subsistence fees to the regulators. Guidance for standard rules and bespoke permits were updated in February 2022 and the link provides associated guidance for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Prior to the requirement to operate under an Environmental Permit, sites and waste management facilities operated under the requirements of a Waste Management Licence which were effected under s35 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the associated Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1996, the latter of which have now been repealed and replaced by the Environmental Permitting regime (i.e., the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016).

Bespoke Permit

Bespoke permits are site specific permits tailored to the activity undertaken at the site. These permits do not fit the criteria or design parameters for standard rules permits. All landfill permits are bespoke permits as are all Part A (1) activities which fall within Schedule 1 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

A bespoke permit can also be applied for the use of the deposit of waste for recovery.

In order to gain a bespoke permit, the operator must meet certain legal and competency requirements including membership of a government approved technical competency scheme e.g. WAMITAB or CIWM and pass continuing competency assessments every two years.

The site must have a full environmental management system which identifies and adequately manages the risks and limits any instances of pollution events occurring. Risk assessments must also be carried out on any potentially polluting activities however If you’re applying for a bespoke permit but most of your activities are covered by standard rules, you only need to do a risk assessment for the activities or risks that aren’t covered by the generic risk assessment for those standard rules.

The facility must also be designed to avoid and control emissions which must also be included in the EMS and risk assessment profile. Environmental Impact Assessment’s must also be undertaken to consider the impact of the activity of the surrounding historic and natural environment, local population and local highways for instance.

Standard Rules Permit

Standard rules permits contain a standard set of rules depending on the chosen application or activity. The rules cannot be varied and there is no right of appeal against them. Should the rules or perimeters need to be varied then a bespoke permit will be required.

There are over 100 standard rules permits which are broken down into the following categories:

• Biological treatment of waste
• Flood risk activities
• Installations
• Low impact installations
• Keeping/transfer of Waste
• Metal recovery/scrap metal
• Materials recovery and recycling
• Recovery or use of waste on land
• Treatment to produce aggregate or construction materials
• Water discharges
• Radioactive substances for non-nuclear sites
• Onshore oil and gas exploration and mining operations.

Applying for a standard rules permit is quicker and costs less than a bespoke permit. As seen previously, in order to be granted any of the standard rules permits the operator must meet the legal and competency requirements (including technical competency) and develop an environmental management system. Risk assessments are generic for the activities in these instances, so they must be understood and complied with; as is the requirement to control and monitor emissions (although the requirement to submit emissions information as part of a standard rules permit application is not required).

Exemptions

Some waste operations are exempt from needing a permit and can operate under a waste exemption instead, these include businesses that use, treat, recover, stores or disposes of waste.

You can only register a waste exemption if the waste operation:

• meets all the limits and conditions of an exemption
• doesn’t harm the environment or human health.

All exemptions must be registered with the Environment Agency. Exemptions are free of charge and for last three years, if the operation is still active after this time then re-registration of the exemption will be required.

The exemptions fall into four categories:

• Using waste (U)
• Storing waste (S)
• Treating waste (T)
• Disposing of waste (D)

Structure of Environmental Permits

All Environmental Permits are structured in a similar format for ease of use although the number of conditions in each will vary according to the individual sites.

All permits, particularly bespoke and standard rules permits, start with an Introductory note which does not form part of the permit. For a bespoke permit this will outline the main features of the installation such as its location, national grid reference, operator, total quantity of waste to be deposited, the geology beneath the surface and the overarching surrounding environment e.g. location of nearest sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs), watercourses etc. For standard rules permits the introductory note outlines what activities the operator may undertake within the confines of the particular standard rules permit.

The conditions are then structured as follows.

1. Management of site including general management, finance provision and site security;
2. Operations including the Permitted activities, operating techniques, engineering requirements, waste acceptance and closure, aftercare and decommissioning.
3. Emissions and monitoring including outlining the trigger levels for emissions monitoring into groundwater, air or land, odour, noise and vibration emissions monitoring and an outline of the monitoring frequency.
4. Information including the requirement to keep records and report the performance of the activities to the Environment Agency annually.
5. Schedule 1 – Lists the permitted operations.
6. Schedule 2 – Lists the permitted wastes (as EWC codes)

Other conditions include emissions and monitoring requirements including limit values for leaching or for organic parameters, reporting requirements and site plans.