Sector
Environment & Sustainability
Waste management, recycling, environmental consulting and green services.
Start here
Packaging producer compliance journey
If you put packaged goods on the market — producer fees are live
Starting a waste business
Starting a waste business — permits and duty of care
Waste compliance quick check
The waste-operator self-audit
Set up a remediation business
Land remediation and decontamination services
Responding to environmental enforcement
Facing environmental enforcement? Start here
Who regulates you
See all 18Environment Agency (opens in a new tab)
Environmental protection in England. Regulates waste, emissions, water quality, flood risk, and environmental permits for industrial activities. Enforces environmental law and issues permits for …
Enforces 8 Acts this sector relies on.
HSE (opens in a new tab)
Workplace health, safety, and welfare regulation across all industries. Enforces the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and related regulations. Investigates serious incidents …
Enforces 8 Acts this sector relies on.
NRW (opens in a new tab)
Principal environmental regulator for Wales. Combines functions of Environment Agency Wales, Countryside Council for Wales, and Forestry Commission Wales. Issues environmental permits, manages natural …
Enforces 8 Acts this sector relies on.
SEPA (opens in a new tab)
Scotland's principal environmental regulator. Protects and improves Scotland's environment. Issues environmental permits for waste, emissions, water abstraction, and radioactive substances. Enforces environmental law and …
Enforces 8 Acts this sector relies on.
Local Authority (opens in a new tab)
Local councils enforce food safety (via Environmental Health Officers), issue alcohol licences, grant planning permission, and regulate certain business activities at local level. Responsibilities …
Enforces 5 Acts this sector relies on.
OEP (opens in a new tab)
Independent body established post-Brexit to scrutinise environmental law and investigate complaints about public authorities' failures to comply with environmental law in England and Northern …
Enforces 5 Acts this sector relies on.
Key legislation
See all 29What’s changing
Environmental Permitting (Waste Controlling or Transporting) and Relevant Functions of Primary Authorities (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2026
The Digital Waste Tracking (England) Regulations 2026
General rules
Common requirements that apply across industries. Conditions such as employing people or operating premises are shown only after they are known.
File your confirmation statement
File a confirmation statement every 12 months, within 14 days after your review period ends. Filing late is a criminal offence for the company and its officers.
Applies across industries.
General ruleVerify your identity for Companies House as a director or PSC
Yes, if you are an individual director or PSC of a UK company, or an individual director of an overseas company registered in the UK. Corporate directors and officers of corporate PSCs are not yet required to verify. The transition for existing directors and PSCs ends on 17 November 2026.
Applies across industries.
General ruleMandatory registrations every business must complete
Step-by-step guide to the registrations every business must complete before trading, regardless of sector. Covers HMRC tax registration, ICO data protection fee, mandatory insurance, and pension auto-enrolment.
Applies across industries.
General rulePre-trading compliance checklist
A concise yes/no checklist to verify you have completed all mandatory pre-trading requirements, including business registration, tax, insurance, licences, premises approvals, and data protection.
Applies across industries.
General ruleMeet your business waste duty of care
Understand your legal responsibilities when producing, storing, or disposing of business waste. Covers using registered waste carriers, completing waste transfer notes, and the stricter rules for hazardous waste.
Applies across industries.
General ruleCheck if you need to register for VAT
Find out if your business must register for VAT based on your taxable turnover. Covers the £90,000 threshold, what counts as taxable turnover, the rolling 12-month test, and when voluntary registration makes sense.
Applies across industries.
All guidance for environment & sustainability
Compliance & Legal
8
Set up and run a safe sewerage operation
Every sewerage business must protect its workers and others affected by the work. This guide covers the workplace health and safety, fire safety, employers' liability insurance, equality and data protection duties that apply before you get into the sector-specific sewerage regulatory requirements.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Meet your waste management regulatory duties
Waste collection, treatment, disposal and materials recovery carry activity-specific regulatory duties beyond the universal workplace spine. This guide covers waste carrier, broker and dealer registration, the section 34 duty of care, environmental permits for waste treatment and disposal facilities and for recovery operations, authorised treatment facility requirements for end-of-life vehicles, hazardous waste consignment controls, and landfill tax.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Meet your environmental permits, waste and construction duties for remediation
A remediation business must hold environmental permits for waste operations, register as a waste carrier, comply with the contaminated land regime, control asbestos, meet CDM construction duties, handle hazardous waste correctly and observe the waste duty of care. This guide takes you through each duty in turn.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Set up and run a safe waste management operation
Waste collection, treatment, disposal and materials recovery is high-hazard work — heavy plant, moving vehicles, manual handling, dust, biological and chemical exposure, and fire risk from stockpiled combustible waste. Whatever waste activity you carry on, this is the universal spine. It takes you through your core workplace health and safety duties, fire safety, employers' liability insurance, equality and data protection.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Waste management: compliance checklist
Use this checklist to confirm your waste management business meets its obligations before you begin operating. Work through the universal workplace items every operator shares, then the activity-specific environmental, registration and tax duties. If you answer no to any item, follow the linked guide before you proceed.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Meet your sewerage regulatory duties
A sewerage business must hold an appointment as a sewerage undertaker (or be exempt), hold environmental permits for its discharges, meet urban waste water treatment standards and comply with sewage sludge controls when spreading to agricultural land. This guide takes you through each regulatory duty in turn.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Remediation: compliance checklist
Use this checklist to confirm your remediation or waste management business meets its obligations. Work through the workplace items every business shares, then the environmental, waste and construction duties. If you answer no to any item that applies to you, follow the linked guide before you proceed.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Set up and run a safe remediation operation
Every remediation and decontamination business must protect its workers and others affected by the work. This guide covers the workplace health and safety, employers' liability insurance, equality and data protection duties that apply before you get into the sector-specific environmental, waste and construction requirements.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Show 6 more
Sewerage: compliance checklist
Use this checklist to confirm your sewerage business meets its obligations. Work through the workplace items every business shares, then the sewerage regulatory duties. If you answer no to any item that applies to you, follow the linked guide before you proceed.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Which remediation and waste management rules apply to you
If you carry out land remediation, decontamination or other waste management services you must meet workplace safety duties and comply with the environmental, waste and construction regulations that govern your work. Use this page to find which guides apply to your business.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
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.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Which waste management regulations apply to your business
Every waste management business shares the same workplace-safety foundation, but the rules then diverge by what you do — whether you collect and transport waste, operate a treatment or disposal facility, run a materials recovery operation, or dismantle end-of-life vehicles. Work out which path applies to you before you go any further.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Understanding the Water Framework Directive for businesses
How the Water Framework Directive shapes UK water regulation — river basin management, water body classification, the no-deterioration principle, and what it means for any business whose activities affect surface water or groundwater. Explains the post-Brexit retention position and the four-nation regulatory landscape.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Get authorisation for a water activity in Scotland (EASR)
How to get authorisation for any activity affecting surface water or groundwater in Scotland — abstraction, impoundment, engineering in or near a water body, and discharges. Since 1 November 2025 water activities are authorised under the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018 (EASR), which replaced the Controlled Activities Regulations (CAR 2011) framework. Covers the four-tier authorisation system (General Binding Rules, notification, registration, permit), pre-application advice, fees, and enforcement, all administered by SEPA.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Environment & Sustainability
3
Scottish Landfill Tax and Landfill Disposals Tax (Wales): Revenue Scotland and WRA rules
What landfill site operators must do to account for landfill tax in Scotland and Wales. Scotland has Scottish Landfill Tax, collected by Revenue Scotland. Wales has Landfill Disposals Tax, collected by the Welsh Revenue Authority. The 2026 to 2027 standard and lower rates are the same in both nations, but registration, deadlines and the treatment of unauthorised disposals are not.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Waste carriers and hazardous waste: SEPA and NIEA rules for Scotland and Northern Ireland
What waste collectors, remediation contractors, builders and motor trade businesses must do to register as waste carriers, move hazardous waste and sort business waste in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Scotland has its own registration regime under the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018, its own special waste system and its own recycling duties. Northern Ireland has a separate register run by NIEA and its own hazardous waste rules.
Relevant across several parts of this sector.
Registering as a waste carrier
How to register as a waste carrier, broker or dealer. Covers upper tier and lower tier registration, fees, exemptions, and renewal requirements for businesses that transport waste.
Applies if you move waste by road or take waste away from other people's sites
Sector-Specific
4
Run a vehicle dismantler or salvage business
Dismantling, salvaging and scrapping vehicles is one of the most regulated parts of the motor trade. To depollute and scrap end-of-life vehicles you need an environmental permit and Authorised Treatment Facility status — only an ATF can issue the Certificate of Destruction — and to trade in scrap or salvage you need a scrap metal dealer licence.
Applies if you dismantle or salvage vehicles for parts or scrap, including treating end-of-life vehicles
Which motor trade rules apply to your business
"Motor trade" covers very different businesses — selling cars and motorcycles as a dealer, repairing and MOT-testing vehicles in a garage, selling parts and accessories, or dismantling and scrapping end-of-life vehicles. Each has its own regulators and rules, on top of the duties they all share. Work out which description fits you and follow the right guide.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Motor trade compliance checklist
A confirmation checklist for motor trade businesses. Work through the cross-cutting duties every motor business shares, then the section for what you do — selling vehicles, repair and MOT, parts, or dismantling and salvage. Several duties differ by nation, so check the rule for where you operate.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Working in the civil nuclear industry
Regulatory compliance requirements for businesses operating in the civil nuclear industry including site licensing, security vetting, liability insurance, and decommissioning obligations under Office for Nuclear Regulation oversight.
Relevant to a specific activity in this sector.
Subsectors
SIC 2007 divisions covered by this sector.
Waste Collection & Recycling
Waste collection, treatment and disposal activities; materials recovery
SIC 38