Apply for an environmental permit for a Part A(1) installation

These rules are for England.

Check that your installation is Part A(1)

Part A(1) installations are the industrial activities with the greatest pollution potential, listed in Schedule 1 to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016. They include refineries, factories and process industries, and waste activities such as landfill, hazardous waste treatment and incineration. Combustion plant is Part A(1) when its rated thermal input is 50MW or more.

Where several activities of the same description run in one installation, add their capacities together when you test them against a threshold. The Environment Agency regulates Part A(1) installations; your council regulates smaller Part A(2) and Part B installations.

You commit an offence if you operate without a permit you need, and planning permission does not replace one. The two regimes are separate: planning decides whether the land use is acceptable, and the permit decides whether the operation can be managed to prevent or minimise pollution.

Choose between standard rules and a bespoke permit

A standard rules permit is a fixed set of rules for a common activity. It is quicker and cheaper, but you cannot vary the rules and you have no right to appeal against them. If your activity does not fit a standard rules permit, you must apply for a bespoke permit, which is tailored to your plant.

Prepare your application

Before you apply, have these in place:

• evidence that you will be the legal operator and are competent to run the installation
• a management system, which is a set of procedures that identifies and minimises the risks of pollution
• a risk assessment of what your installation could release and where it would go
• a design that avoids and controls emissions by using best available techniques (BAT)
• a case that the plant will use energy efficiently, for example under an energy management system such as ISO 50001

For BAT, you state in the operating techniques section of the form how you will follow each BAT that applies to your activity and meet its emission limits, or you propose an alternative. The Agency will allow emissions above the BAT limits only if you show the cost of meeting them is disproportionately high compared with the environmental benefit, because of the site's location or its technical characteristics. A new power station or energy-from-waste plant must also follow the Agency's combined heat and power (CHP) ready guidance.

You can ask the Agency for pre-application advice. Basic advice is free and covers the type of permit, the forms and guidance, the correct charge and the risk assessments you will need. Enhanced advice, which is charged by the hour, covers complex modelling, monitoring requirements and running your permit application alongside a planning application. The Agency will not tell you in advance that a proposal will be approved. If your proposal is complex or uses a novel technology, you can ask to send your application information in stages.

Show decarbonisation readiness

For applications made on or after 28 February 2026, a new or substantially refurbished electricity-generating combustion power plant must show it is ready to decarbonise. This covers fossil fuel, biomass, biogas and energy-from-waste plant, and for a Part A(1) installation it applies from 50MW thermal input. A plant is substantially refurbished if the refurbishment costs more than 50% of the investment cost of comparable new plant, not counting abatement. Existing plant that you are not refurbishing is outside the requirement.

Back-up plant that runs only to maintain supply in an on-site emergency, with testing limited to 50 hours a year, plant with a nuclear safety role and plant burning only landfill gas are also outside it.

You must show that the plant will be ready for one of two routes: operating as a complete carbon capture and storage system that captures at least 90% of its CO2 continuously, or converting to run on hydrogen as its main fuel. You choose one route as your preferred route, and you address four tests:

• there is space on the site for the carbon capture or hydrogen equipment
• the conversion is technically feasible
• CO2 can be transported and stored, or hydrogen fuel can be obtained, depending on your route
• the conversion is economically feasible

You send a decarbonisation readiness report with your bespoke application, in proportion to the size of the plant. You do not have to meet fixed benchmarks; you must show there are no known barriers. The Agency assesses the space and technical tests, and you certify the other two yourself. It charges for assessing the report. Your permit then requires you to review the report at least every 2 years and give the Agency an up-to-date copy on request.

Send your application

The application charge for an installation is set in the Agency's charging scheme, and you pay it when you apply. If you succeed, you then pay an annual subsistence charge for as long as you hold the permit. If some of your information is commercially sensitive, include a letter with your reasons asking the Agency not to make it public.

What happens next

The Agency can send your application back if you used the wrong forms, left out payment or left out important information, such as a risk assessment that does not identify the pollutants or a BAT assessment that does not justify how BAT applies. Once it has what it needs, it tells you the application is duly made and starts its assessment. If it cannot progress the application, it may keep part of your charge.

The Agency consults on bespoke applications. It publishes a notice and your application documents on the public register, and anyone can comment within 20 working days. It may also consult the local authority, the UK Health Security Agency, water companies and Natural England. An application of high public interest can take longer and may get an extra consultation on the draft decision.

It usually decides a new permit within 4 months and tells you if it will take longer. You can appeal if it refuses your application or if you object to the conditions of a bespoke permit.

Change or surrender your permit later

What happens if you breach your permit