Some waste operators will no longer need planning permission before obtaining an environmental permit, the government has announced.

After consulting on changes to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 (EP Regulations 2010) between 7 February-14 April, the UK government has now released a summary of stakeholder responses as well as its response, outlining which actions it will be taking forward.

Proposed amendments put up for consultation included:

• removing the requirement for waste businesses to secure planning permission for certain waste operations before an environmental permit can be issued;
• providing a registration scheme for low-risk discharges to groundwater from some ground-source heating and cooling systems;
• simplifying requirements on regulators in maintaining twin systems of public registers containing information connected with permit determinations;
• transferring the handling of appeals under the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2010 from the Planning Inspectorate to the environment jurisdiction of the First Tier Tribunal;
• simplifying regulators’ handling of standard rules permits, requirements relating to landowner permission to clean up;
• correcting two ‘oversights’ in respect of permit transfers; and
• allowing ‘greater flexibility’ in relation to the service of notices on the body corporate.

Planning permission changes

One of the most notable actions government said it will take forward is an amendment to offer ‘greater flexibility around the requirement for certain waste businesses to have to secure relevant planning permission as a pre- requisite to the grant of an environmental permit’.

At the moment, for regulated waste activities – including larger waste incinerators and other large industrial plants – permits may be issued regardless of the planning status of a waste facility. However, for waste activities that were previously regulated through the waste management licensing system up until 2007 (such as landfills, waste transfer and treatment facilities), an environmental permit cannot be issued unless relevant planning permission is in place.

According to the Environment Agency, around 10 per cent of applications for waste management activities affected by the requirement for prior planning consent are delayed because the status of planning permission is ‘not clear’ at the time of applying for the permit.

After receiving 39 responses to this amendment – over three-quarters of which responded in favour of changing the pre-requisite requirement – government has decided to move forward with the changes.

The report reads: ‘There are clearly arguments for and against the planning pre-requisite. It is the local planning authority that will determine if a waste facility is needed and, if so, what type is appropriate giving [sic] due consideration to the waste hierarchy and local waste plan…

‘The weight of argument is in favour of giving maximum flexibility to operators and we therefore propose to remove the pre-requisite need for planning permission to the grant of an environmental permit.’

While approximately a third of local authority respondents opposed the move on the grounds that it would encourage certain types of operators to breach planning controls, government added that it was important there should be no less cooperation between the relevant planning authority and the Environment Agency/Natural Resources Wales as a consequence of this step.

Registration scheme for low-risk discharges to groundwater

The ‘great majority’ of the 22 respondents agreed with the proposal to ‘deregulate low risk discharges to groundwater from certain ground source heating and cooling (GSHC) systems, offering a registration scheme that contains criteria to ensure continued environmental protection’.

However, some respondents, mainly water companies, raised some issues around monitoring and enforcement.

Government has said it will proceed with the amendment and the Environment Agency will expect operators to monitor abstraction and discharge rates and temperature as a matter of routine (within standard parameters and frequency that will be set out in the exemption conditions). However, there will be no requirement to formally submit a compliance report.

Specifically, government will:

• amend the exemption criteria ‘both to focus on the balance to the aquifer rather than the balance within the building’;
• amend the wording on protected wetlands to refer to groundwater dependent ecosystems and watercourses. This will include statutory and non-statutory wetlands, the proximity to rivers and streams, and the potential for lowering of dissolved oxygen levels; and
• specify the baseline conditions prior to development that will be used to assess compliance. This will reduce the potential for creeping temperature rise within the aquifer.

Simplifying requirements on regulators

To ‘streamline permit information held on public registers by regulators, removing the requirement for local authorities to maintain public registers that duplicate the contents of the Environment Agency [or Natural Resources Wales] public register’, the government has decided to get rid of the requirement for regulators to maintain duplicate public registers.

This decision followed on from ‘near unanimous’ support for respondents.

The relevant regulatory bodies will however ensure that public register information is ‘available to those who seek it’ and develop electronic application forms which should be available ‘sometime in 2014’.

Transfer of handling appeals

The proposal to transfer the handling of appeals from the Planning Inspectorate to the environment jurisdiction of the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) received one of the most mixed reactions to the consultation .

Responses in favour of the change included:

• some having ‘little experience’ of the current appeals process;
• a belief that the new system could offer ‘a more appropriate and responsive decision making process’;
• a view that appeals should be part of a judicial process, offering a ‘more balanced perspective’; and
• thoughts that the ability to appeal on matters of law to the Upper Tribunal rather than the High Court would ‘likely lead to speedier and potentially cheaper decisions for all parties’.

Reasons against included:

• the fact the Planning Inspectorate has ‘well established procedures and the necessary expertise’;
• concern that the necessary training of FTT staff and judiciary would need to be undertaken before the transfer;
• concern over what sufficient resources would be provided to ensure an effective service; and
• a belief that parties should continue to be encouraged to ‘seek resolution outside of a formal hearing’.

Due to the mixed responses, government said that before seeking ministers’ views to proceed, it will consider the proposal in more detail, and deliver: a ‘revised assessment of the likely costs and benefits to the public purse’; and recruitment exercises for ‘experts’ to sit as tribunal panel members and investment in IT and administrative processes within Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service.

Simplifications

Other steps the government will take to simplify the regulations include:

• allowing new operators to apply for revised standard rules within the three-month notification period;
• easing requirements on gaining landowner permission to clean up after a spill;
• introducing greater flexibility in persons on whom a notice can be served; and
• correcting two ‘oversights’ in respect of permit transfers (so that regulators can vary the terms of a permit when it is being partially transferred from one operator to another; and allow suspension notices to continue to apply when the permit is transferred to another operator).

Government will not go ahead with amendment for regulators to ‘consult where they wish to vary standard rules permits except where the changes are only minor and administrative’ due to respondent concerns. It said that, should the proposal be resurrected, there will ‘be a need to consult on accompanying guidance that should explain the criteria more explicitly’.

The responses will now be used to draft the amending regulations, which government says it hopes to lay in Parliament 'early in the New Year'.

Read the summary of responses and government response to the ‘Draft Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2013’.