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Guidance

A1 installations: environmental permits

From:
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and Environment Agency
Part of:
Business and the environment and Environmental permits
Published:
1 February 2016
Applies to:
England (see guidance for Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales)

How to apply for standard rules and bespoke permits for A1 installations including low impact installations.

You must apply to the Environment Agency if you operate a facility which is classed as an ‘A1 installation’ - check the guidance on the regulations to find out if it is.

If your installation is classed as ‘A2’ or ‘B’, apply to your local authority.

A1 installations are facilities which carry out industrial processes like refineries, food and drink factories and intensive farming activities (eg large-scale chicken farms). They also include certain waste activities like disposing of waste to landfill, hazardous waste treatment and waste incineration.

There are 2 types of permit:

  • standard rules - a set of fixed rules for common activities
  • bespoke - tailored to your business activities

You’re breaking the law if you operate without an environmental permit if you should have one.

Check if a standard rules permit is what you need

You can apply for a standard rules permit if your activity meets the relevant description and rules, but:

  • you can’t change (vary) the rules and you have no right of appeal against them
  • if you want to change your operations and so won’t meet the criteria of the standard permit any more, you’ll have to apply to make it a bespoke permit instead
  • if there’s a change in your local environment after your permit has been issued (eg a change in the definition of a groundwater source protection zone you may need to apply to change (vary) your permit to another standard rules permit or a bespoke permit

Applying for a standard rules permit is quicker and costs less than a bespoke permit.

If you don’t meet the conditions for a standard rules permit you must apply for a bespoke permit.

Standard rules permits: low impact installations

You can apply for a standard rules permit as a low impact installation if you carry out any A1 activity, except for activities related to:

  • incineration and co-incineration of waste
  • disposal of waste by landfill
  • disposal of waste other than by incineration or landfill
  • recovery of waste

Read the standard rules for:

Qualifying as a low impact installation

To qualify, your installation must have a low environmental impact because of its design, including during start-up, shutdown, or abnormal operating conditions.

Low impact installations must not:

  • release more than 50 cubic metres per day of waste water
  • have to use equipment to reduce or remove emissions before they’re released into the outside environment
  • discharge emissions to groundwater
  • produce more than 1 tonne of waste or 10kg of hazardous waste per day, averaged over a year, with not more than 20 tonnes of waste or 200kg of hazardous waste being released in any one day
  • consume energy at a rate greater than 3 megawatts (MW) or, if the installation uses a combined heat and power installation to supply any internal process heat, 10MW (through both imported electricity and by burning fuel on site)

Low impact installations must have:

  • containment measures to prevent emissions escaping to surface water, sewer or land, which are maintained at all times
  • only a low risk of causing offence due to noise and odour - you can’t be a low impact installation if noise and odour are noticeable outside the boundary of your site

Standard rules permits: composting, anaerobic digestion, or treatment of incinerator bottom ash

You can apply for a standard rules permit if you carry out any of the following activities:

How to apply for a standard rules permit

Before you apply for a standard rules permit you need to:

You also need to develop a management system (a written set of procedures that identifies and minimises the risks of pollution).

Standard rules permits: application forms

Download and fill in these forms:

Send your completed forms and application fee by email to PSC@environment-agency.gov.uk or post them to:

Permitting and Support Centre
Environmental Permitting Team
Quadrant 2
99 Parkway Avenue
Parkway Business Park
Sheffield
S9 4WF

Find out about keeping sensitive information in your application confidential and what happens after you apply.

Apply for a bespoke permit

You must apply for a bespoke permit if your activity doesn’t fit the conditions of a standard rules permit. You can apply for a bespoke permit as a low impact installation if you carry out an A1 activity and meet the criteria for a low impact installation.

Before you apply you must do all the following:

Bespoke permits: application forms

Download and fill in these forms:

Send all the following with your application forms:

  • the summary of your management system
  • your risk assessment
  • any other supporting documents mentioned in the form guidance, eg site maps and plans
  • your fee

Email your completed forms and other documents to PSC@environment-agency.gov.uk or post them to:

Permitting and Support Centre
Environmental Permitting Team
Quadrant 2
99 Parkway Avenue
Parkway Business Park
Sheffield
S9 4WF

Keeping sensitive information confidential

When the Environment Agency consults on your permit application it will let people see the information in your application.

You can ask the Environment Agency not to make public any information that’s commercially sensitive for your business (eg financial information). You can do this by including a letter with your application that gives your reasons why you don’t want this information made public.

The Environment Agency will email or write to you within 20 days if it agrees to your request. It will let you know if it needs more time to decide.

If it doesn’t agree to your request it will tell you how to:

  • appeal against its decision
  • withdraw your application

Fees and charges

You must pay a fee to apply for a permit. Usually this fee can’t be refunded.

You must send your fee with your application. If your application’s successful, the Environment Agency will charge you an annual ‘subsistence’ fee while you have a permit. This fee depends on your activity and the type of permit you have.

Find out more about fees and charges. You can contact the Environment Agency for help to work out your fee.

After you apply

The Environment Agency may reject your application if, for example:

  • you haven’t used the right forms
  • you’ve forgotten to include the fee or sent the wrong fee
  • you haven’t provided important information

Once the Environment Agency has the information it needs to start assessing your application, it will contact you and tell you that your application is ‘duly made’. This means it’s starting the assessment process. It may still request more information if it needs it to complete its assessment.

Consultations on your permit application

The Environment Agency will publish online a notice of your application and instructions for how other people can comment on it and see the application documents on the public register.

Members of the public and anyone interested in the application have 20 working days to comment.

The Environment Agency may also consult other public bodies, eg local authorities, Public Health England, water companies, and Natural England.

If the Environment Agency considers your application to be of high public interest, it may:

  • take longer to give you a decision
  • carry out an extra consultation on the draft decision
  • advertise the application more widely

The Environment Agency’s public participation statement explains how and why it will consult on permit applications.

Decisions about your permit

The Environment Agency will write to you to tell you its decision.

You should normally get a decision on your application within 13 weeks. The Environment Agency will tell you if your application will take longer.

You can appeal if the Environment Agency refuses your application.

You can also appeal if you’ve applied for a bespoke permit and you’re not happy with the conditions

The decision letter will explain how you can appeal.

The Environment Agency will publish the decision on its public register.

When you get a permit

Find out how the Environment Agency will regulate you when you start operating.

Change, transfer or cancel your permit

When you’ve got a permit you can:

  • change (vary) the details on it
  • transfer it to someone else
  • cancel (surrender) it

Find out how to change, transfer or cancel your permit.

Contact

Contact the Environment Agency if:

  • you need help with your application
  • you’re not sure you need a permit

General enquiries

National Customer Contact Centre
PO Box 544
Rotherham
S60 1BY

Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm

Contents

Document information

Published: 1 February 2016

From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Environment Agency

Part of: Business and the environment Environmental permits