Environmental Permit Requirements England

A standard rules permit uses a fixed, published set of rules that the regulator has written for a type of activity, and you can only use one if your activity meets that set's pre-conditions. A bespoke permit has conditions written for your particular site. You get flexibility with a bespoke permit. With standard rules you get a cheaper, quicker application, but you give up the right to appeal the conditions and can't tailor them. The term "bespoke" doesn't appear in the 2016 Regulations. It's the name Defra and the Environment Agency use for a permit that isn't built on a standard rules set.

Approach: I read the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (Part 2, Chapter 4, regulations 26-30, and related regulations) and the government's post-implementation review published with them. I did not open the Environment Agency's current charging scheme, so the fees below are only the figures quoted in that review.

How they compare

	Standard rules permit	Bespoke permit
Where the conditions come from	The regulator writes rule sets for types of facility after consulting operators, affected communities and others. It must publish them on its website (reg 26(1), (2), (5)) [11]. At the operator's request, the regulator "may" add a term to the permit making the rules its conditions (reg 27(2)) [12]	Written for the individual activity. Even these include some standard wording, such as a condition requiring a written environmental management system [13]
Who can use it	Only a "standard facility", meaning a regulated facility described in published standard rules (reg 2) [14]. The activity must meet the set's pre-conditions, for example on materials handled, capacity or location [15]	Any regulated facility, including activities that fall outside every rule set
Assessment	The regulator normally only checks that you meet the criteria. No site-specific risk assessment is needed, though some waste permits now need a fire prevention plan. You get a one-page permit that refers to the rule set [15]	Site- or activity-specific issues are reflected in the permit [15]
Public consultation on your application	None [15]	Not covered by the passages I read
Appeals	"there is no right of appeal under regulation 31" against the rules or the conditions they create (reg 27(3)) [12]	The regulation 27(3) bar does not apply
Changing conditions	You can't vary the conditions without the permit becoming bespoke [15]	Conditions can be varied for that site
Effort and cost (review figures)	About 20 hours to prepare a waste application. Examples: £1,867 (radioactive substances rule sets), £2,641 (mining waste rule sets) [16][17]	About 28 hours for a waste application. Equivalent fees: £5,588, and £6,955 or £2,767 depending on the mining waste activity [16][17]

What only applies to standard rules permits

• The regulator can change your conditions without varying your permit. The regulator "must" keep its rule sets under review and revise them when it considers it necessary (reg 26(4)) ^[11].
  • It must tell affected permit holders about a proposed revision before publishing it. The revision becomes a condition of each permit 3 months after publication, or on publication if it is only a minor administrative change (reg 28) ^[18].
  • No individual permit variation is needed ^[19].
• If a rule set is withdrawn, your permit becomes bespoke. The regulator "may" revoke a set after consulting (reg 29) ^[20]. The revoked rules stay in effect until the regulator varies your permit. It "must" then, as soon as reasonably practicable, replace the standard rules term with whatever conditions it considers appropriate (reg 30) ^[21].
• One permit can cover several sites. The regulator may authorise more than one standard facility on more than one site under a single permit (reg 17(2)(d)) ^[22]. It may also merge an operator's permits for several standard facilities into one (reg 18(1)(c)) ^[23].
• No 4-year protection for water discharges. For a stand-alone water discharge activity, the regulator usually can't vary discharge conditions on its own initiative within 4 years of grant or of the last variation, unless you agree. That protection does not apply to a standard facility (reg 20(4)-(5)) ^[24].

Choosing between them

The review says standard rules are meant for activities that are "sufficiently well-characterised", not just low-risk ones. Some fairly high-risk activities qualify ^[15]. Rule sets exist for:

• waste operations;
• flood risk activities;
• industrial installations;
• medium combustion plant and specified generators;
• onshore oil and gas exploration and mining waste;
• non-nuclear radioactive substances activities;
• water discharges.

The Environment Agency has published over 100 sets ^[19]. The review links the rule sets and their pre-conditions on GOV.UK ^[15].

The main downside is rigidity. Larger businesses told the review that standard rules permits can stop fitting when operations change. They then have to apply for a variation or switch to a bespoke permit, both at extra cost, and one respondent said variations can take up to a year ^[25]. For flood risk activities the saving is small: £170 for a standard rules application against £221 for the cheapest bespoke permit ^[26].

If you tell me the activity, I can check whether the Regulations define it as a regulated facility that a published rule set could cover.

Use the Environment Agency's Public Registers Online service at environment.data.gov.uk/public-register. You can search it by business name, permit number, local authority or address. For documents that aren't online, such as the full permit or licence, ask the National Customer Contact Centre for a copy. The register is a legal duty. Under regulation 46 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016, the regulator "must" keep a public register, add information "as soon as reasonably practicable", make it available for inspection "free of charge" at all reasonable times, and let people get copies of entries "on payment of a reasonable charge" ^[27].

Approach: I read regulations 46-56 and Schedule 27 of the 2016 Regulations, along with the Environment Agency's register exports. I also opened the official public register site and the GOV.UK access guidance.

Step 1: Search online

There are two ways to search (Public Registers Online):

• Quick search, if you have a permit number or business name.
• Search all registers at once by business name, permit number, local authority or address. You can also search each register on its own page.

The registers it holds:

Environmental Permitting Regulations registers	Other registers
Waste Operations	Waste Carriers, Brokers and Dealers
End of Life Vehicles (ATF register)	Waste Exemptions
Installations	Water Quality Exemptions
Discharges to Water and Groundwater	Scrap Metal Dealers
Radioactive Substances	Enforcement Actions
	Flood Risk Activity Exemptions

Points to watch:

• Enforcement actions don't show up in the all-register search. Search the Enforcement Actions register on its own.
• WEEE, packaging, batteries and large reservoirs are covered on a separate GOV.UK page.
• Bulk CSV downloads are published for each register, which helps if you're screening many sites. Examples:
  • waste operations ^[28]
  • water discharges ^[29]
  • radioactive substances ^[30]
  • end-of-life vehicles ^[31]
• There is also an API.

Step 2: Ask for the documents

The online entries are mostly summary records. Under Schedule 27, para 1, the legal register must also hold copies of these ^[32]:

• applications to grant, vary, transfer or surrender a permit, and representations made on them;
• the permits and variations themselves;
• enforcement, suspension, revocation and closure notices;
• appeal papers;
• monitoring data and information the operator has to submit under permit conditions;
• details of convictions, enforcement undertakings and (for companies) formal cautions for regulation 38 offences;
• fees paid.

To get these, GOV.UK says you can "ask the Environment Agency to send you a copy of the relevant permit or licence" through the National Customer Contact Centre: enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk, 03708 506 506 (Monday to Friday, 8am-6pm), or PO Box 544, Rotherham, S60 1BY. That page doesn't give charges or timescales (GOV.UK).

Why some information may be missing

• Confidential information: the regulator "must" leave out information it considers may be confidential, or that the information subject has claimed as confidential with reasons, until the confidentiality process is resolved (reg 48) ^[33]. The register must then carry a statement that information of that description exists (reg 46(5)) ^[27].
• Confidential monitoring data: if this is left out, the register must still say whether the operator complied with emission limit value conditions (Sch 27 para 1(5)) ^[32].
• National security: information can be excluded on national security grounds (reg 47) ^[34].
• Criminal proceedings: information on proceedings that haven't finished, including prospective ones, need not be entered (reg 46(2)-(3)) ^[27].
• Removed entries: formal cautions come off after 5 years, and individuals' convictions come off once the rehabilitation period ends. Information that is no longer relevant for public participation need not be kept (Sch 27 paras 2-4) ^[32].
• Council-regulated sites aren't on the Agency's register. Regulation 46 places the duty on "the regulator", and for Part A(2) and Part B installations, small waste incineration plants and solvent emission activities the regulator is the local council (reg 32(5)) ^[10]. So look for those on the council's own register.
• Exempt facilities are on a separate register of exemptions that the exemption registration authority keeps (Sch 2 para 11) ^[8]. For T3 and T7 waste exemptions, that is the local authority.

If you give me a permit number, operator name or postcode, I can look it up in the Environment Agency's waste operations, water discharge, radioactive substances, end-of-life vehicle, water quality exemption and enforcement registers.