Environmental Permitting

The environmental permitting regime requires operators of facilities that could harm the environment or human health to obtain permits for these facilities or to register others as exempt. The regime provides for on-going supervision by regulators of which the aim of the environmental permitting regime is to:

Protect the environment so that statutory and Government policy environmental targets and outcomes are achieved.
Deliver permitting and compliance with permits and certain environmental targets effectively and efficiently and in a way that provides increased clarity and minimises the administrative burden on both the regulator and the operator.
Encourage regulators to promote best practice in the operations of facilities
Continue to fully implement European legislation.

The regime covers facilities previously regulated under the Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations 2000, Waste Management Licensing and exemption schemes, some parts of the Water Resources Act 1991, the Radioactive Substances Act 1993 and the Groundwater Regulations 2009.

You need an environmental permit if you operate any of the following:

an 'installation' – an industrial facility, manufacturer or other business that produces potentially harmful substances, for example a landfill site, a large chicken farm, a food factory, a furniture factory, a dry cleaners, a petrol station
a waste operation – a site where waste is recycled, stored, treated or disposed of
a mining waste operation – a site which manages waste produced from mines or quarries
a medium combustion plant or specified generator
a small waste incineration plant – where certain types and quantities of waste are burned
mobile plant – plant that's designed to move or be moved, for example a machine that's moved onto a site to clean contaminated soil
a solvent emission activity – releasing organic solvents directly or indirectly into the air

You need an environmental permit if you carry out any of the following:

a stand-alone water discharge activity – releasing polluting liquids to surface water such as rivers or streams
a stand-alone groundwater activity – releasing polluting liquids directly or indirectly to water underground

You need an environmental permit for an activity which involves radioactive substances.

You may need an environmental permit for flood risk activities if you do work:

in, under, over or near a main river (including where the river is in a culvert)
on or near a flood defence on a main river
in the flood plain of a main river
on or near a sea defence

(GOV.UK, 2016a)

The environmental permitting regime extends to England and Wales only (Scotland and Northern Ireland operate under their own related regimes).

The environmental Permitting regime is set out in the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 as amended.

The Environmental Permitting regime refers to sites where activities are undertaken as 'installations' which are either:

Stationary technical units where one or more activities are carried on; and
Any other location on the same site where any other directly associated activities are carried on.

'Installations' are then sub-divided as either A(1), A(2) or B installations depending on the type of 'activity' operated on site.

All activities, installations and mobile plants and the list as to whether they are A(1), A (2) or B permits can be found within Schedule 1 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 as amended.

A1 installations are facilities which carry out industrial processes like refineries, food and drink factories and intensive farming activities. They also include certain waste activities like disposing of waste to landfill, Hazardous Waste treatment and waste1 incineration, gasification and pyrolysis.

All A(1) Permits are regulated by the Environment Agency in England and Natural Resources Wales in Wales. (Scotland and Northern Ireland continue to operate under a slightly different regime).

Part A(2) permits are regulated by the Local Authority as these activities are less polluting than their A(1) counterparts and include industries and activities such as gas refining, metal works e.g. producing pig iron or steel, casting ferrous metal, melting non-ferrous metals, surface treatment of metals and plastic materials, grinding cement clinker, ceramic product manufacturing, animal waste incineration, new tyre manufacturing, disposing or recycling animal carcasses or waste2.

Part B permits are also regulated by the Local Authority but only relate to installations and activities that cause emissions to air such as crematoria, dry cleaners and small car body work companies re-spraying damaged cars etc.

The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 were amended in 2013 to transpose the requirements of the Industrial Emissions Directive (2010/75/EU) which amongst other things repealed the Waste Incineration Directive (2000/76/EC).