Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016

The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 S.I. No. 1154 ("the 2016 Regulations") consolidate and replace the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 S.I. No. 675 which had been amended 15 times. These amendments included provisions to strengthen powers for regulators to tackle illegal operators and provisions to add a new permitting regime for flood defences. The 2016 Regulations set out an Environmental Permitting and compliance regime that applies to various activities and industries. They entered into force on 1st January 2017.

As well as consolidating and updating the previous environmental permitting legislation they also amend a wide range of Acts including the Control of Pollution Act 1974, the Water Industry Act 1991, Clean Air Act 1993 and Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995. One hundred and twenty-one Statutory Instruments also have amendments made under these Regulations.

Furthermore there is also a set of amendments to the 2016 Regulations which revise the rules for mobile crushing of lamps that contain mercury (the T17 exemption). This restricts those who are able to crush lamps under the T17 and reduce the number of lamps which can be crushed without a permit.

The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 have also been used to transpose many EU Directives into domestic law. Each Directive or policy area covered by the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 has a speciifc schedule.

Policy Area	EPR Schedule
Chapter II Industrial Emissions Directive (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control)	7 – Part A installations
Part B installations and Part B mobile plant	8 – Part B installations and Part B mobile plant
Waste Framework Directive	9 – Waste operations and materials facilities
Landfill Directive	10 - Landfill
End-of-Life Vehicles Directive	11 – Waste motor vehicles
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive	12 – Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
Chapter IV Industrial Emissions Directive	13 – Waste Incineration
Chapter V Industrial Emissions Directive	14 – Solvent emission activities
Chapter III Industrial Emissions Directive	15 – Large Combustion plants
Asbestos Directive	16 – Asbestos
Chapter VI Industrial Emissions Directive	17 – Titanium dioxide
Petrol Vapour Recovery Directive	18 – Petrol vapour recovery
Batteries Directive	19 – Waste batteries and accumulators
Mining Waste Directive	20 – Mining Waste operations
Water discharge activities	21 – Water discharge activities
Groundwater activities	22 – Groundwater activities
Basic Safety Standards Directive	23 – Radioactive substances activities
Energy Efficiency Directive	24 – Efficiency in heating and cooling energy
Flood risk activities and excluded flood risk activities	25 – Flood risk activities and excluded flood risk activities
Medium Combustion Plant Directive	25A - Medium combustion plants
Specified generators	25B - Specified generators

In late November 2018, DEFRA published the Environmental Protection (Miscellaneous Amendments) (England and Wales) Regulations 2018. These amendments strengthen the assessment and enforcement of operator competence and require that all waste sites operate in accordance with a written management system. These amends came into force on 7th April 2019.