The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2013

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 (SI 2010/675) (“the principal Regulations”), to transpose Directive 2010/75/EU on industrial emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control) (Recast) (“Industrial Emissions Directive”)(1).

Regulations 4 to 9 amend various definitions in accordance with the Industrial Emissions Directive. Regulation 10 inserts a new provision into regulation 12 of the principal Regulations whereby the requirement for an environmental permit will not apply to certain activities until 15th July 2015. Regulation 15 makes provision for incidents and accidents in accordance with articles 7 and 8 of the Industrial Emissions Directive.

Regulation 16 provides for a new defence in relation to the requirement in regulation 12 of the principal Regulations to hold a permit where an application for a permit is made by the specified date.

Regulations 20 to 44 make amendments to Part 2 of Schedule 1 to the principal Regulations. Amendments to some of the Sections in that Part implement changes introduced by Annex 1 to the Industrial Emissions Directive. Amendments also delete some of the activities in Schedule 1 which are not included in that Directive and change the description of existing activities from Part A(1) to A(2) or from A(2) to Part B.

Regulation 46 provides for the insertion into permits of a deemed provision in relation to incidents and accidents.

Regulation 47 amends Schedule 7 and inserts a new Schedule 7A which applies to new Part A activities from the date the Regulations come into force and to existing Part A activities from 7th January 2014.

Regulation 48 substitutes a new Schedule 8 which applies to Part B activities in England and Wales. In Wales, Schedule 8 applies to solvent emission activities and small waste incineration plants in addition to the provisions of Schedules 13 and 14.

Regulation 50 amends Schedule 13 and inserts a new Schedule 13A which applies to new waste incineration and co-incineration plants from the date the regulations come into force and to existing waste incineration plants and waste co-incineration plants from 7th January 2014. Under the principal Regulations as amended, waste incineration plants and waste co-incineration plants which have a capacity below 10 tonnes per day of hazardous waste or below 3 tonnes per hour of non-hazardous waste are small waste incineration plants. These will no longer be subject to Schedule 7 or 7A but will be subject to Schedule 13A.

Regulation 51 substitutes a new Schedule 14 relating to solvent emission activities. These supersede SED activities under the principal Regulations.

Regulation 52 amends Schedule 15 and inserts a new Schedule 15A which applies to new large combustion plants from the date the Regulations come into force and to existing large combustion plants from 1st January 2016.

Regulation 53 amends Schedule 17 and inserts a new Schedule 17A which applies to new installations producing to waste titanium dioxide from the date the regulations come into force and to new installations producing waste titanium dioxide from 7th January 2014.

Regulations 55 and 56 make provision for changes to the classification of activities in Schedule 1 and for those which cease to be covered by these Regulations.

A full impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business, the voluntary sector and the public sector is available from the Better Regulation Programme, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Ergon House, Horseferry Road, London SW1P 2AL and is published with the Explanatory Memorandum alongside the instrument on www.legislation.gov.uk.

(1)

OJ No L 334, 17.12.2010, p 17.