In England, Scotland and Wales, you could be responsible for the cost of cleaning up land contaminated by past activities if:
- you caused or allowed land to become contaminated and took no action, even if you no longer own the land or operate the site
- you own or occupy the contaminated land, even if you were not responsible for the contamination.
UK-wide
You could also be responsible for land contamination if it is classed as environmental damage and was caused from:
- 1 March 2009 in England
- 6 May 2009 in Wales
- 24 June 2009 in Scotland
- 24 July 2009 in Northern Ireland.
Environmental Damage and Environmental Liability Regulations
You could be responsible for land contamination if it is caused by you breaking the terms of other environmental regulations, such as PPC permits (Scotland and Northern Ireland) and environment permits (England and Wales).
Environmental permits
Pollution prevention and control permits
Waste management licensing
Land contaminated by past activities
Your local council or environmental regulator will identify the appropriate persons who are responsible for all or part of the repairs, clean up and remediation of a contaminated site.
Remediation is the action needed to ensure that the land is no longer a risk to human health or the environment.
There are two classes of appropriate persons:
- Class A are people who cause or allow the pollutant(s) to be in, on or under the land.
- Class B are the current owner(s) or occupier(s) of the land.
If your local council or environmental regulator cannot identify a Class A person, a Class B person may become liable. Several appropriate persons may be identified for one site.
If your local council or environmental regulator cannot find either an appropriate Class A or Class B person, they have the power to clean up the contaminated land themselves. Any other appropriate persons identified will still have to pay their share of the remediation costs.
Cleaning up and remediating contaminated land, including special sites
If your land is contaminated you must act immediately to clean up the land and to prevent further contamination.
Your local council or, in the case of a special site, your environmental regulator, will:
- determine how the land should be cleaned up
- serve a remediation notice on the polluter or other appropriate person telling them how and by when they must remedy the condition of the land.
Contact your local council
Contact your environmental regulator
In this guideline:
What is contaminated land?
Who is responsible for cleaning up contaminated land?
Contaminated land assessment and remediation
How can you prevent land contamination?
Environmental damage: contaminated land
Contaminated land further information
Contaminated land legislation
