Exemptions Reform to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016

Overview

This consultation seeks views on changes which the UK government is proposing to make to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016. 

These proposals relate to England and Wales only, and only relate to flood risk activities, waste operations, water discharge activities, and groundwater activities. In England only, they also relate to the forthcoming waste controlling and transporting activities which could be introduced to the regulations as part of any reforms to the waste carrier, broker and dealer registration system in England. They include stringent safeguards to prevent environmental harm and will complement separate initiatives by regulators to increase scrutiny, oversight and ultimately the performance of permitted sectors. 

This consultation forms part of the UK government’s regulating for growth programme. We are committed to improving regulation to ensure we are protecting the environment whilst supporting economic growth by reducing the burden of regulation. The changes we are proposing would make the permitting regime more agile in managing environmental risk and provide greater business certainty and transparency. 

The environmental permitting regime has evolved over time and continues to change as part of the wider regulatory landscape. Our proposals seek to further streamline the arrangements around the types of controls that apply to different types of environmental risk. Our aim is to simplify and speed up the process for the lead regulators (the Environment Agency in England and Natural Resources Wales in Wales) to create, amend and remove types of exempt facilities and activities which are not required to hold an environmental permit. Our proposals include options to safeguard the regulators’ transparency and accountability when making decisions on how the rules for exempt facilities should apply.  

This document seeks views on the design and scope of our proposals and the safeguards on the use of exemptions. 

We are seeking views from the businesses and sectors in scope of these reforms as well as wider organisations and individuals across civil society, local government and academia.