How you'll be regulated: environmental permits
How the Environment Agency checks you're complying with your permit through assessments, inspections and permit reviews, and what happens if you do not follow the rules.
Applies to England
Before you start
This guidance explains how the Environment Agency checks that you’re complying with your environmental permit.
If you have not yet applied for a permit, or are unsure whether you need one, check if you need an environmental permit for your activity.
You can also get advice before you apply for an environmental permit.
Your responsibilities as an operator
You must follow all the conditions of your permit.
The Environment Agency will check you’re complying with your permit and continuing to be a competent operator.
The Environment Agency can:
- revoke your permit if they decide you’re not a suitable operator
- reject your application if they decide the person who wants to take over your waste, mining waste or installations permit, when you apply to transfer, is not a competent operator
To comply with the conditions of your permit, you must:
- ensure your activities are managed on a day-to-day basis by a competent person (or persons)
- carry out only the activities covered by your permit
- construct the infrastructure needed to prevent pollution before you start operating, including hardstanding, drainage, bunds, buildings, plant and equipment
- where needed, implement a written management system which must prevent or minimise the risk of pollution
- carry out any monitoring and submit the data and reports specified in your permit
Your requirements to manage pollution risks may be specified in your permit, standards or in your proposed plans.
You must also comply with other directly applicable legislation, such as duty of care and hazardous waste.
Develop and maintain a management system
A management system is a structured approach to help you manage your activities. It is a working document that you must:
- review regularly to ensure it is working
- adapt as your operations or risks change
- have in place before you start operating
You’ll need to implement a management system if you’re applying for an environmental permit for:
If you have a waste permit issued before 6 April 2008, it may not include a specific condition requiring a management system. Amendments to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 require all permitted waste sites to have a management system, unless your permit contains a working plan condition. Your working plan could form part of a management system if you chose to use one.
When you apply for a permit, the Environment Agency will ask to see an outline of your management system. They may ask to see a particular section in more detail depending on the risks from your site.
When your site is inspected, the Environment Agency officer may ask to see some or all of your management system. You must ensure your management system is kept up to date and is easily accessible.
What to include in your management system
The amount of information you’ll need in your management system will depend on how complicated and risky your activities are.
Your management system must include the risks of pollution from:
- your operations (including maintenance)
- an accident or incident, for example a cyber security attack, severe weather, loss of utilities or other abnormal events
- climate change
- failing to comply with, or from a contravention of your environmental permit
- anything identified following a complaint
- closing the operation
You must also include records of:
- activities carried out in line with your management system
- any reviews or updates
This does not affect permitted waste operations which are carried out at installations or through part B mobile plant.
For more guidance on how to develop and maintain a management system, see Develop a management system: environmental permits.
Use appropriate measures
Appropriate measures are the standards that operators should meet to comply with their environmental permit requirements. Relevant appropriate measures will depend on the:
- activities being carried out
- size and nature of the activities
- location of the site
You must apply appropriate measures where the Environment Agency have identified that:
- you need to (and can) improve the facility
- there is significant environmental risk
- there is actual pollution
You’re expected to follow industry or sector standards, guidance and good practice, taking account of the costs and benefits.
You must write the appropriate measures into your management system, where one is required.
For more information on appropriate measures, see Technical guidance for regulated industry sectors: environmental permitting.
For more information on water discharges, see Water discharge and groundwater activity environmental permits.
Assessments and inspections
Your operation may be checked by the Environment Agency through:
- an assessment – a desk based check of whether you’re complying with your permit, for example checking information you have sent to the Environment Agency
- an inspection – where an officer visits your site
- an audit – a more in-depth assessment that might be desk based, on site or both
- sampling – of your permitted water discharge activity or groundwater activity
Environment Agency staff will look around your site and ask questions about what you’re doing. They may ask to see documents or talk to your staff.
Where possible, the Environment Agency will work with other regulators in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), such as the Rural Payments Agency. They will co-ordinate inspections and keep the number of visits you receive to a minimum.
See Assessing and scoring environmental permit and licence compliance for more information.
When you’ll be inspected
Inspections are usually unannounced, but some might be pre-arranged. Audits will normally be pre-arranged.
The Environment Agency will always inspect or assess the following activities:
- waste operations
- installations
- complex flood risk activities
- complex water discharges and groundwater activities, like large sewage treatment plants
These mandatory assessments and inspections are funded through annual subsistence fees. See Environmental permits: when and how you are charged for more information.
You’re likely to be inspected if you discharge to surface waters or groundwater in a sensitive or vulnerable area, like a groundwater source protection zone.
The Environment Agency may assess or inspect other sites if there’s:
- a pollution incident at your site, or in your area
- a flood incident at your site (for flood risk activities)
- a complaint about your activity
The Environment Agency does one compliance check for a flood risk activity permit unless the activity is ongoing. See the environmental permitting charges guidance for more information about how they charge for this.
Read the guidance on how the Environment Agency sets and assesses site-specific discharge quality numeric permit limits to surface water and groundwater.
Compliance assessment reports
If the Environment Agency carries out an assessment, inspection or attends an incident, they will complete a compliance assessment report (CAR) and give you a copy.
The CAR will record anything you’re doing that does not comply with your permit and state what you have to do to correct this. For waste and installations, this may affect your yearly permit fee (subsistence fee) and will be considered when you apply for a variation.
See the Assessing and scoring environmental permit and licence compliance for more information.
CARs are public register documents. You can read the CARs published by the Environment Agency.
The Environment Agency publishes CARs in phases, starting with CARs for water discharge activity written from 28 February 2025. The CARs will be published 42 days after issue to allow for the commercial confidentiality and appeal periods to have passed. CARs for water discharge activities written before 28 February 2025 will continue to be available to the public on request.
If you do not comply with your permit
The Environment Agency may take enforcement action if:
- you’re not complying with your permit and do not put it right in a reasonable timeframe
- they suspect you’ve broken the law, or in some cases they think you’re about to
Their actions can include:
- giving you advice
- changing your permit conditions through a variation initiated by the Environment Agency
- serving you with an enforcement notice, and for flood risk activities a remediation notice, which will state what you must do to fix problems and by when
- serving you with a suspension notice if there’s a risk you might cause pollution – you must stop carrying out your activities until they have confirmed you have carried out the actions set out in the notice
- revoking your permit – this means your permit ceases to exist
- prosecuting you if they think it’s in the public interest
For more information, read the Environment Agency enforcement and sanctions policy.
Continue operating after revocation
If you wish to continue operating after your permit is revoked, you’ll have to apply for a new permit which could be refused.
Suspensions and revocations can be partial, for example just one activity, or impact the whole operation depending on the reason for the enforcement action.
When the Environment Agency may intervene
The Environment Agency can carry out work to address an environmental, flood risk or land drainage problem and recover costs from you if:
- your activity has caused serious pollution
- your activity is creating a risk of serious pollution
- you’ve deposited waste illegally and not removed it when you were told to
- you’ve caused polluting substances to get into a watercourse, or the substances are in a place where they are likely to get into a watercourse – or you’ve knowingly allowed this to happen
- you have carried out any unauthorised works or caused harm to flood risk, land drainage or the environment (for flood risk activities)
How the Environment Agency reviews permits
The Environment Agency periodically reviews all the permits granted for a particular sector, as set out in the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016. This is to check that they:
- contain conditions that are suitable for the activity and site
- contain the correct site address, operator or registered company address, billing address, and so on
- protect people and the environment
- reflect the latest regulations and environmental standards
The sector guidance notes set out the latest environmental standards, for regulated industry, groundwater and surface water discharges.
The Environment Agency will tell you if they are reviewing permits for your sector and what that means for you.
What happens during a permit review
Most permit reviews have the following steps.
Identifying the review
The Environment Agency identifies permits for review through planned programmes or regulatory requirements.
They will contact you if your permit is included in any review.
Requesting information
The Environment Agency will ask you to provide information about how your activity operates and how it meets current regulatory standards. This will be in the form of a Regulation 61 notice, which requires you to provide them with specific information to support the review.
They may request further information if your response requires clarification or evidence.
The Environment Agency will vary the permit to include improvement conditions requiring the necessary information if either:
- they do not receive a response from you
- you’re unable to supply the information at the time of review
If you fail to comply with these improvement conditions or any other conditions of your permit, you’ll receive a non-compliance score which could affect your subsistence charges (where applicable to your sector).
If you’re unable to demonstrate compliance with the new conditions, your operation may be restricted until you can demonstrate compliance.
Assessing the permit
The Environment Agency assess whether the permit conditions remain appropriate and compliant with current environmental standards and requirements.
This will include best available techniques (BAT) and sector guidance where relevant.
Deciding the outcome
The Environment Agency may either:
- confirm that no changes are needed
- update part or all of the permit
Issuing the outcome
Where changes are needed, the Environment Agency will consult you before issuing a revised permit and decision document. You have a right to appeal these changes within 2 months of permit issue.
If no changes are needed, the Environment Agency will contact you to notify you of this.
You must continue to comply with your permit while a review is ongoing.
Charges for permit reviews
Most permit reviews are chargeable. The charges:
- are based on the work required to assess the permit
- follow the Environment Agency’s charging scheme
- apply whether or not the permit review leads to changes to the permit, including where the permit already meets the requirements that triggered the review
The Environment Agency will explain if charges apply and how they are calculated.
In most cases for waste and installations permits, the charge will be for a normal variation for the highest chargeable activity you carry out on site.
If significant work is involved in reviewing your permit:
- you may be charged for a substantial variation
- where necessary, the Environment Agency may use time and materials charging
If you do not pay charges, this could lead to suspension or revocation of your permit.
Following the completion of the permit review, your annual subsistence charge may change. The Environment Agency will inform you of this when the review is complete.
What a permit review does not do
A permit review does not:
- approve new activities
- allow for changes to the permit which would require a permit variation application
- prioritise an existing application relating to the permit
- remove the need to comply with existing permit conditions
If you want to change your activity, you’ll need to apply to vary your permit.
Changes to standard rules permits
If you have a standard rules permit, the Environment Agency can change the conditions of its rule set.
Before the Environment Agency changes a rule set, they will hold a consultation and write to any permit holders who could be affected by the changes.
They will give you 3 months to comply with the new conditions.
Appeal a decision or make a complaint
If you wish to appeal a regulatory decision made by the Environment Agency, see our guidance on the appeal procedure.
If you’ve recently been issued a permit, your permit issue documents will explain your statutory right of appeal. Follow the appeals process set out in these documents instead.
If you wish to make a complaint, follow our complaints procedure.
Contact
Contact the Environment Agency if you have questions about your permit or how they will regulate you.
General enquiries
National Customer Contact Centre
PO Box 544
Rotherham
S60 1BY
Email enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk
Telephone 03708 506 506
Telephone from outside the UK (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm GMT) +44 (0) 114 282 5312
Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.