Guidance and regulation

How to access the Environment Agency's public registers of environmental information.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 13 January 2023

How to meet the general binding rules if your septic tank or small sewage treatment plant releases (discharges) waste water to the ground.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 2 October 2023

When you need an environmental permit to discharge liquid effluent or waste water to surface water or the ground, and how to apply.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 21 February 2024

How to meet the general binding rules if your septic tank or small sewage discharge treatment plant releases (discharges) waste water to a surface water.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 2 October 2023

The Environment Agency's charging scheme for environmental permits and abstraction and impounding licences from 1 April 2022.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 10 April 2024

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

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 25 August 2023

Find out where SPZs are, what defines the different zones and why the Environment Agency must protect groundwater from pollution.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 1 August 2019

How to carry out a risk assessment if you are applying for a bespoke permit that includes discharging hazardous chemicals and elements to surface water.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 25 February 2022

General binding rules for small sewage discharges from septic tanks or sewage treatment plants in England.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 2 October 2023

If you abstract water or plan to, you may need to apply for an abstraction licence.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 3 July 2023

How to apply to the Environment Agency for a water abstraction or impounding licence.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 1 June 2023

Environment Agency enforcement position on temporary discharges of uncontaminated water from excavations to surface water without a water discharge activity permit.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 6 January 2023

How to assess the impact of your activity in estuarine (transitional) and coastal waters for the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The guidance is called Clearing the Waters for All.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 9 October 2023

How the Environment Agency carries out government policy for groundwater and adopts a risk-based approach where legislation allows.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 2 October 2023

Use this guide to understand when your waste water discharge is classed as domestic sewage.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 29 July 2021

Find out if your groundwater discharges are extremely low risk so don’t need an environmental permit or exemption.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 5 August 2021

Use this service to view and share your licence information and to submit abstraction returns. Find out about water abstraction alerts.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 1 June 2023

Non-statutory technical standards for the design, maintenance and operation of sustainable drainage systems to drain surface water.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Updated: 23 March 2015

How to comply with your permit, including maintenance, record keeping and pollution reporting requirements.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 31 December 2014

How to carry out a groundwater risk assessment as part of an application for an environmental permit.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 3 April 2018