Guidance and regulation

Permits for installations, medium combustion plant, specified generator, waste or mining waste operations, water discharge or groundwater activities, or work on or near a main river or sea defence.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 23 October 2020

Check if you need to apply for an environmental permit, formerly known as a flood defence consent, and get the forms you need.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 3 April 2024

How the Thames Barrier works, and when it is scheduled to close.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 3 April 2024

Find out when you need to do a flood risk assessment as part of your planning application, how to complete one and how it's processed.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 27 February 2017

When and how local planning authorities, developers and their agents should use climate change allowances in flood risk assessments.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 27 May 2022

Find out if you need to follow standing advice when completing a flood risk assessment and what to do.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 8 February 2022

Find out if you need to carry out the sequential test as part of your flood risk assessment and how to complete one.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 28 February 2017

How to change details of your environmental permit, transfer it to somebody else or cancel it.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 25 August 2023

How to use the maps to find out if you're at risk of flooding from surface water.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 12 December 2013

How to carry out a flood risk assessment so that you can complete your planning application.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 27 February 2017

Find out about flood risk activity exemptions, which used to need flood defence consent, and how to register them.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 25 February 2020

Groundwater flooding, how it might affect you and what to do.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 20 September 2023

Check how coastal flood and erosion risks will be managed in your area.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 30 January 2024

When to use standing advice on site-specific flood risk assessments, and when to consult the Environment Agency.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 8 February 2022

The types of work on or near a main river or sea defence that don't need an environmental permit so are excluded from the regulations.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 13 October 2016

Checklists to help you prepare for flooding.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 15 November 2023

How to register a reservoir, appoint a panel engineer, produce a flood plan, prepare an inspection information pack and report an incident.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 23 February 2024

When to use hydrological and hydraulic modelling as part of a flood risk assessment for a planning application, and the expected standards.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 12 December 2023

What information local planning authorities need to include in a strategic flood risk assessment.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 31 March 2022

Guidance and information on flood risk management and surface water management.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 3 June 2014