You must have an environmental permit if you operate a regulated facility in England or Wales.
A regulated facility includes:
- Installations or mobile plants carrying out listed activities
- Waste operations
- Waste mobile plants
- Mining waste operations
Listed activities include:
- Energy - burning fuel, gasification, liquefaction and refining activities
- Metals - manufacturing and processing metals
- Minerals - manufacturing lime, cement, ceramics or glass
- Chemicals - manufacturing chemicals, pharmaceuticals or explosives, storing chemicals in bulk
- Waste - incinerating waste, operating landfills, recovering waste
- Solvents - using solvents
- Other - manufacturing paper, pulp and board, treating timber products, coating, treating textiles and printing, manufacturing new tyres, intensive pig and poultry farming
Listed activities are divided into three categories: Part A(1), Part A(2) and Part B.
Part A permits control activities with a range of environmental impacts, including:
- Emissions to air, land and water
- Energy efficiency
- Waste reduction
- Raw materials consumption
- Noise, vibration and heat
- Accident prevention
Part B permits control activities which cause emissions to air.
The permits your business requires depends on the specific processes involved and resulting emissions.
Permits are available from the Environment Agency or us (the regulator) depending upon the category your business falls within:
- Part A(1) installations or mobile plants are regulated by the Environment Agency
- Part A(2) and Part B installations or mobile plants are regulated by us, except waste operations carried out at Part B installations which are regulated by the Environment Agency
- Waste operations or waste mobile plant carried on other than at an installations, or by Part A or Part B mobile plants, are regulated by the Environment Agency
- Mining waste operations are regulated by the Environment Agency.