(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations contain provisions relating to the licensing of abstraction and impounding of water in England and Wales in the light of amendments made by the Water Act 2003 to the Water Resources Act 1991 (“the Act”).
Part 2 relates to procedural requirements, including time limits in relation to the making of licence applications and in relation to appeals from decisions on licence applications for the abstraction or impounding of water. All applications for an abstraction licence or an impounding licence, other than those seeking to vary such a licence so as to reduce the quantity of water authorised to be abstracted, must be made to the Environment Agency (“the Agency”) containing the information specified in regulation 3 and in the manner specified in regulation 4. The Act requires the Agency, on receipt of certain applications, to advertise the application. Regulation 6 prescribes the manner in which notice of such applications must be published, while regulation 7 provides exceptions to the requirement to advertise. These Regulations also require the Agency to acknowledge receipt of an application, providing the applicant with specified information within the time prescribed in regulation 8. Special provisions apply where the application relates to abstraction or impounding in a National Park or the Broads (regulation 9). The Agency must make a decision on an application and serve notice of that decision on an applicant or refer the matter to the Secretary of State, or (in the case of abstraction or impounding works in Wales) the National Assembly for Wales, within specified time limits (regulation 10). Any appeal must be made within the time limits specified in regulation 12 and in the form specified in regulation 13.
Part 3 of, and Schedule 2 to, these Regulations make modifications to the Act as it applies to abstraction or impounding by the Agency. The Agency must effectively follow similar procedures and comply with similar requirements as any other applicant, and the Regulations prescribe procedures, requirements and time limits in relation to the process of making, deciding and challenging Agency licence applications.
Part 4 of these Regulations relates to the content of enforcement notices in relation to a breach of a restriction on the abstraction or impounding of water (regulation 25) and works notices in relation to the protection of the environment (regulation 27). It also applies procedures in the Anti-Pollution Works Regulations 1999 (S.I. 1999/1006) to appeals which may be brought against enforcement, works and conservation notices (regulations 28 and 30).
Part 5 of these Regulations makes miscellaneous provisions, in particular: prescribing the content of and the procedure for publishing notices of proposals by the Agency to modify a licence issued under the Act (regulation 31); permitting the Agency to determine the form of a notice to be given by an owner of fishing rights applying to modify a licence (regulation 32); specifying a 21 day time-limit for serving a notice of appeal against a notice requiring existing, unlicensed impounding works to be licensed and applying, with modifications, appeals provisions under the Anti-Pollution Works Regulations 1999 to such an appeal (regulation 33); and prescribing what information must be contained on the register of abstraction and impounding licences (regulation 34).
A full Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared in connection with these Regulations and placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from the Water Supply and Regulation Division, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 55 Whitehall, c/o 3-8 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HH and from Environment Protection and Quality Division, Welsh Assembly Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ.