Consultation outcome

Environmental permitting: standard rules consultation 32

From:
Environment Agency
Published
1 October 2025
Last updated
2 February 2026 — See all updates

Applies to England

This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Proposed standard rules permits for small sewage discharges: summary of consultation responses

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Detail of outcome

The responses we received have provided information that supports us in developing the standard rules sets for these activities. We will now review the draft permits and generic risk assessments and publish final versions on GOV.UK in Spring 2026.

Original consultation

Summary

We want your views on 3 proposed standard rules permits to cover small sewage discharge activities that are currently regulated using bespoke permits.

This consultation was held on another website.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

The consultation document sets out 3 standard rules and the supporting generic risk assessments. They cover:

  • discharges of treated sewage effluent to ground of more than 2 cubic metres per day but not more than 5 cubic metres per day (SR2025 No 5)
  • discharges of treated sewage effluent to ground of no greater than 1.5 cubic metres per day which are discharged using a shallow drainage system that does not conform to the British Standard, and which are replacing an existing discharge to surface water or to ground (SR2025 No 6)
  • discharges of treated sewage effluent to surface water which achieve secondary treatment using equipment that does not conform to the British Standard or where the receiving watercourse does not always have flow, or both (SR2025 No 7)

Updates to this page

Published 1 October 2025
Last updated 2 February 2026 show all updates

  1. Added the consultation response document.

  2. First published.

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