Environment & Sustainability UK-wide

Which sewerage rules apply to you

If you operate a sewerage undertaking, carry out sewage treatment, empty cesspools and septic tanks, or maintain drains and sewers, you must meet workplace safety duties and the regulatory requirements for your activities. Use this page to find which guides apply to your business.

Guide summary

Work through two sets of rules for your sewerage business: workplace health and safety and sewerage regulatory duties. Use the compliance checklist to confirm you meet all your obligations. You must follow the Health and Safety at Work Act to protect employees and others affected by your work.

  • Set up and run a safe sewerage operation under health and safety law
  • Meet your sewerage regulatory duties for permits, treatment and sludge
  • Use the sewerage compliance checklist to check all obligations
  • Protect employees and non-employees from workplace risks
  • Ensure employees take reasonable care and cooperate with safety rules
  • HSE enforces workplace safety with unlimited fines and up to 2 years in prison
  • You must balance risk against cost of control but health and safety comes first
On this page

Related guides in Compliance & Legal

Sewerage: compliance checklist

Use this checklist to confirm your sewerage business (SIC division 37) meets its obligations. Work through the workplace …

Your guides

The rules that apply to a sewerage business fall into two areas. Work through both.

  1. 1

    1. Set up and run a safe sewerage operation

    Workplace health and safety, fire safety, employers' liability insurance, equality and data protection duties that apply to every sewerage business.

  2. 2

    2. Meet your sewerage regulatory duties

    Appointment as a sewerage undertaker, environmental permits for discharges, urban waste water treatment standards and sewage sludge controls.

  3. 3

    3. Sewerage: compliance checklist

    Confirm your business meets all its obligations in one place.