Check if you need an environmental permit

You must not run a regulated facility, or cause or knowingly permit a water discharge or groundwater activity, without an environmental permit. The permit sets conditions that protect air, water, land and people. Most businesses never need one, so the first job is to find out whether your activity is on the list.

Activities that need a permit

You need an environmental permit if you operate any of these.

• An installation, which is an industrial facility or other business that produces potentially harmful substances, such as a landfill site, a large chicken farm, a food factory, a furniture factory, a dry cleaner or a petrol station.
• A waste operation, which is a site where waste is recycled, stored, treated or disposed of, or a mining waste operation.
• A medium combustion plant or a specified generator.
• A small waste incineration plant that burns certain types and quantities of waste.
• Mobile plant, which is plant designed to move or be moved, such as a machine brought on to a site to clean contaminated soil.
• A solvent emission activity, which releases organic solvents into the air.
• A stand-alone water discharge activity that releases polluting liquids to surface water, or a stand-alone groundwater activity that releases them to water underground, unless the activity is excluded or exempt.
• Any activity involving radioactive substances.

You may also need a permit for flood risk activities, which means work in, under, over or near a main river, on or near a flood defence or sea defence, or in the flood plain of a main river.

Who issues the permit

Installations are classed as Part A1, Part A2 or Part B. Part A1 and Part A2 permits cover emissions to air, water and land. Part B permits cover emissions to air only. The classes are listed in the Environment Agency's guidance on the meaning of 'regulated facility'.

Medium combustion plants and specified generators

A medium combustion plant has a rated thermal input of at least 1 megawatt and less than 50 megawatts, and burns any fuel. A new plant, put into operation on or after 20 December 2018, needs its permit before it starts operating. An existing plant above 5 megawatts needed its permit by 1 January 2024. An existing plant of 1 to 5 megawatts needs its permit by 1 January 2029. A generator that produces electricity may fall under both the medium combustion plant rules and the specified generator rules, in which case the stricter controls apply and you need the permit by the earlier date.

If a company commits the offence with the consent or connivance of a director, or through a director's neglect, the director can be prosecuted as well as the company.

When you do not need a permit

Some activities are excluded, which means no permit or registration is needed. Others are exempt, which means no permit is needed but you may have to register the exemption. The Environment Agency publishes guidance for each activity that sets out which exclusions and exemptions apply.

For waste, there are three ways to meet the permit requirement without a permit of your own. The Environment Agency may have published a regulatory position statement for your activity, in which case it will not normally take enforcement action while you meet the statement's conditions, and each statement has an expiry date. A waste exemption must be registered with the Environment Agency, lasts 3 years from registration and is free for charities that work only for a charitable purpose. A standard rules permit or a bespoke permit covers the rest.

Licences and consents that are not environmental permits

Taking water from a river or from underground, or impounding water with a dam or weir, needs a water resources licence from the Environment Agency. Discharging trade effluent into a public sewer needs a trade effluent consent from your sewerage undertaker, which is your water company. These are separate from an environmental permit, and some businesses need more than one.