Construction & Property UK-wide

Contaminated land compliance checklist

A yes/no checklist for verifying contaminated land compliance, covering council records checks, environmental investigations, planning conditions, remediation requirements, and ongoing monitoring obligations.

Guide summary

Use this checklist to check if you have met your contaminated land obligations. Contact your local council to check if your land is on the public register. If your land may be contaminated, you must carry out investigations, meet planning conditions, and complete any required clean-up to avoid enforcement action.

  • Check your local council's contaminated land register
  • Review past uses of your land for contamination risk
  • Commission a Phase 1 desk study if land may be contaminated
  • Do a Phase 2 ground investigation if the desk study finds risks
  • Satisfy all planning conditions about contamination
  • Complete any required clean-up and get a verification report
  • Check if you have long-term monitoring obligations
  • Review your environmental insurance cover
  • Keep all contamination reports and records accessible
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About this checklist

Use this checklist to verify that you have met your contaminated land obligations. It covers the main compliance steps for businesses that own, occupy, or are purchasing land that may be contaminated. Work through each section and address any gaps before they become enforcement risks.

This checklist applies primarily to England. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate regulatory frameworks, noted in the callouts below.

  1. 1

    Check council contaminated land records

    Contact your local authority environmental health department to check whether your site is on the public register of contaminated land or has been the subject of any Part IIA determination. Also check the contaminated land strategy for your local authority area to understand their inspection priorities.

  2. 2

    Review historical land use

    Obtain historical mapping and check whether the site or adjacent land has had any potentially contaminative use, such as factories, fuel storage, waste disposal, military use, mining, or heavy agriculture. This information feeds into a Phase 1 desk study.

  3. 3

    Commission a Phase 1 desk study if appropriate

    For any site with potential contamination history, instruct a qualified environmental consultant to carry out a Preliminary Risk Assessment to BS 10175 standard. This identifies whether plausible pollutant linkages exist and whether further investigation is needed.

  4. 4

    Complete Phase 2 intrusive investigation if required

    If the Phase 1 study identifies potential contamination risks, commission a Phase 2 ground investigation involving soil and groundwater sampling. Compare results against Generic Assessment Criteria or Category 4 Screening Levels to determine whether remediation is needed.

  5. 5

    Satisfy planning conditions on contamination

    If your site has planning permission with contamination conditions, verify that all required assessments have been submitted and approved by the local planning authority. Common conditions include requirement for desk study, site investigation, remediation strategy, and verification report.

  6. 6

    Complete any remediation requirements

    If a remediation notice has been served under Part IIA, or remediation is required under planning conditions, verify that all works have been completed to the required standard and that a verification report has been submitted to and approved by the relevant authority.

  7. 7

    Check for ongoing monitoring obligations

    Some remediation schemes require long-term monitoring of groundwater, soil gas, or remediation system performance. Verify that any monitoring obligations are being met and that monitoring reports are submitted on schedule.

  8. 8

    Review environmental insurance cover

    If you hold environmental liability insurance, check that the policy remains in force, covers the correct risks, and that you have complied with all policy conditions including disclosure of known contamination and maintenance of any required monitoring.

  9. 9

    Keep contamination records accessible

    Maintain all environmental reports, investigation results, remediation verification, monitoring data, and correspondence with regulators in an accessible file. These records may be needed for future property transactions, regulatory enquiries, or insurance claims.

Land affected by contamination (Environment Agency) (opens in a new tab)