Overview
When to follow this compliance guidance for intensive pig and poultry farming permits and how it relates to other regulatory requirements.
This guidance explains the standards (also known as appropriate measures) for intensive pig and poultry farms to control the risk of pollution to air, land and water.
This guidance is for operators with permits for rearing poultry or pigs intensively in an installation with more than:
- 40,000 places for poultry
- 2,000 places for production pigs (over 30kg)
- 750 places for sows
Pigs reared extensively outdoors are excluded, but housed free-range poultry (egg-laying and chickens reared for meat) are included.
You must meet the following standards to comply with your environmental permit. These standards are mainly derived from the best available techniques (BAT) conclusions for the intensive rearing of poultry or pigs. These are explained in more detail in the best available techniques reference document (BREF).
More information on BAT is available in the guidance on best available techniques: environmental permits.
The BAT conclusion numbers are included in the guidance for reference where relevant, for example, BAT 3.
A ‘must’ in this guidance means you have to do something to meet the requirements of the permit. The Environment Agency does not normally tell you how to achieve them. This gives you a degree of flexibility in how you meet the required standards.
The section numbers in this guidance relate to the permit conditions in your permit. You will need to refer to your permit to use this guidance. Some permits may not exactly follow this numbering system.
You must comply with appropriate animal welfare standards in the design and operation of the farm.
You must not risk the health, safety and welfare of yourself, your staff or your livestock to comply with your permit.
Meet other regulatory requirements
You must make sure that you do not breach any other regulatory requirements, such as:
- nitrate vulnerable zones (NVZs)
- the Farming Rules for Water (the reduction and prevention of agricultural diffuse pollution regulations)
- animal by-products regulations
- silage, slurry and agricultural fuel oil (SSAFO) regulations
Appropriate measures
Where a permit requires you to take appropriate measures to meet a particular objective, you must use, as a minimum, the relevant measures described in this guidance.
The measures set out here are not exhaustive and may not all be appropriate for a particular circumstance. You can put in place equivalent measures that achieve the same objective.
For example, you may have to:
- take additional measures to those set out in this guidance to ensure the objectives are met
- use other management systems and measures to achieve the same outcomes of protecting environmental and human receptors
If you have appropriate measures or equivalent measures in place, including but not limited to those specified in any approved emissions management plan, you will not normally be found to have breached your permit. You must be able to show that you have prevented, or where that is not practicable, minimised the risks to the environment.
If you think you may not be able to comply with your permit you must contact your local Environment Agency officer.
Implementing appropriate measures at new and existing farms
The appropriate measures in this guidance apply to both new and existing farms. This includes new structures or equipment, for example animal housing or manure storage.
For new farms, the appropriate measures must be in place before operations start. This includes farms that are expanding over the threshold.
Introductory note
Your permit has an introductory note. This is not a formal part of the permit. It summarises the activities you can do and how and where you can do them.
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