How do you comply with an environmental permit?

If your regulated facility has an environmental permit in England and Wales you must:

comply with its conditions
tell your regulator in advance if you are planning any change to your operations so they can check if the change is authorised by your environmental permit or if you will need to apply for a variation to your environmental permit
provide any information requested by your regulator, unless you have a reasonable excuse
comply with any notices issued by your regulator.

To find out more about what notices your regulator can issue see our guidance on what happens if you don't comply with environmental permitting.

How to comply with environmental permit conditions

A condition is something that limits or controls the environmental impact of your regulated facility. Your environmental permit will contain one or more conditions that are focussed on achieving an environmental outcome. A condition will not set out what you must do to meet the environmental outcome. You have the flexibility to decide how you will do this.

For example, your condition might say: ‘emissions from your activities shall be free from odour at levels likely to cause pollution outside your site…’. The environmental outcome is no odour pollution from your site. It is up to you to decide how you will achieve this.

The Environment Agency has produced guidance on how to meet an environmental outcome. You have the flexibility to use other methods not set out in this guidance as long as you meet the environmental outcome.

Environment Agency: How to comply with your environmental permit (Adobe PDF - 1.05MB)

The Environment Agency has also produced other guidance to help you comply with your environmental permit.

Environment Agency: Environmental permitting guidance

You must comply with environmental permit conditions or you can be fined or sent to prison.

Are you a competent operator?

If you operate a regulated facility, you must be able to:

operate relevant equipment at your site
comply with legal and policy requirements
minimise environmental and human health risks.

Some operators will need to demonstrate their technical competence. For example, if you carry out specified waste management activities, such as operate a landfill site, you must be able to show continuing technical competence by complying with an ’approved scheme‘.

Approved schemes replace the old Environment Agency assessments and the Waste Management Industry Training and Advisory Board (WAMITAB) Certificate of Technical Competence (CoTC) in England and Wales.

There are currently two approved schemes:

The CIWM/WAMITAB scheme developed jointly by the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) and the Waste Management Industry Training and Advisory Board (WAMITAB).

CIWM: Joint CIWM/WAMITAB scheme

The ESA/EU Skills scheme developed jointly by the Environmental Services Association (ESA) and the Energy and Utility Sector Skills Council (EU Sector Skills).

EU Skills: ESA/EU Skills scheme

To find out more about operator competence, see the Environment Agency’s regulatory guidance note on operator competence or frequently asked questions on waste technical competence schemes.

Environment Agency: RGN 5 operator competence (Adobe PDF - 349KB)
Environment Agency: Waste technical competence schemes FAQs (Adobe PDF - 63KB)

Should you have an environmental management system?

You are not required to have a formal environmental management system, but it will help you demonstrate that you are a competent operator and minimise environmental risks from your regulated facility. To find out more, see our guidance on what is an environmental management system.

If you do not have a formal environmental management system, the Environment Agency has developed a toolkit that will help you comply with your environmental permit and manage your environmental performance. To find out more, see our guidance on toolkits to help you manage your environmental performance.

Submitting online returns

If your environmental permit requires you to submit a waste return you can complete your return online using the Environment Agency's e-business reporting software called the Generic Operator Returns (GOR) internet portal. The GOR portal also enables you to submit other information online, such as pollution inventory reporting.

Environment Agency: e-business returns

What changes should you tell your regulator about?

If you plan to change or extend your operations you must give your regulator written notice before the proposed change so they can check if the change is authorised by your environmental permit. You might need to apply to your regulator to change (vary) your environmental permit to allow the change.

If you operate as a company you should also give your regulator written notice of changes to the operation of your company, including any change:

in your operating name, trading name, registered name or registered office address
to your holding company
in your solvency status, such as going into administration.

You may need to apply for a variation or transfer of your environmental permit. To find out more, see our guidance on how to change, transfer or cancel your permit.

In this guideline: