Reforms set a direction of travel for small-scale incineration, non-waste AD and BAT, though most substantive changes remain subject to further consultation next year.
Defra will consult in 2026 on bringing small waste incineration plants, non-waste anaerobic digestion and carbon capture activities un
der an updated environmental permitting regime based on Best Available Techniques, according to the government's response to last year's industrial emissions consultation.
The response, published this week, draws on 173 written responses. It does not change any rules now. What it does is signal which way the department is leaning on every major element of the reform package before the detailed consultations land next year.
Environment Minister Emma Hardy said the reforms would "modernise our environmental permitting framework for industry so it is faster, clearer and fit for a changing industrial landscape, while continuing to protect public health and the environment."
"This is about giving industry the certainty it needs to grow, while ensuring strong environmental standards for the future," she said.
For the waste sector, the most concrete proposal concerns small waste incineration plants (SWIPs) and solvent emission activities (SEAs). Defra asked whether integrated pollution control and BAT should apply to these categories. Of the 56 respondents who answered, most were supportive, with what the response calls near-unanimous agreement that the change would benefit the environment and human health. Industry objections focused on proportionality: a blanket approach, respondents argued, risked overregulating smaller operators. Defra's answer is that it will consult in detail in 2026 but will not take a one-size-fits-all approach, instead leaving the BAT process to set proportionate standards and keeping separate rules for small industry.
Non-waste anaerobic digestion is being pulled into the Environmental Permitting Regulations for the first time. Fifty-two respondents addressed that question and most strongly supported the change, arguing it would simplify compliance and create a level playing field with waste-fed AD. The counter was familiar: small on-farm plants could be priced out. Defra says its approach will be "practical, effective and proportionate to environmental risk" and that thresholds will stop smaller facilities being caught by heavy-handed requirements. Consultation in 2026.
Dynamic BAT is the structural change behind most of the rest. It transfers responsibility for setting technical standards to the Environment Agency within a legislative framework, and 116 of the 173 respondents had something to say about it. Industry and regulator respondents mostly welcomed the approach as a way to speed standards-setting and improve regulatory certainty. A minority were unhappy about losing direct government oversight. Many across both camps said the Environment Agency would need new resources to run the system at all. The 2026 consultation is due to cover co-production of standards with industry and civil society, alignment with government priorities, independent appeal routes, and cost-benefit requirements.
Carbon capture, utilisation and storage drew responses from 45 of the 173 participants. Most backed bringing carbon capture activities under the Environmental Permitting Regulations alongside existing geological storage rules. Respondents wanted a risk-based approach for lower-risk technologies and flagged concerns about the Environment Agency's capacity to handle novel applications. Defra will consult on amendments in 2026. The change matters for energy-from-waste operators with carbon capture plans, where the current permitting gap has been cited as a barrier to investment.
The response also touches on R&D trials at permitted installations. Some respondents pressed for waste R&D exemptions to align with those already available to industrial installations. Defra has agreed to amend the framework so that R&D trials at permitted waste sites are easier to run, with detail in 2026.
Very little changes today. The Environment Agency's permitting transformation programme continues: a phased rollout of a new digital "apply and manage" service is under way, a priority tracked service for complex multi-permit sites has been running since April 2025, and a Lead Environmental Regulator pilot is intended to give developers a single co-ordinated point of contact. The regulator is also extending its standard rules framework, including new standard rules for back-up generators and wider coverage for biomass.
Some shifts in how existing rules are enforced sit alongside those operational changes. Monitoring requirements for genuine back-up generators where no emission limit values are set will be removed, subject to clarification via Schedule 25B, and a new system for identifying emerging techniques is being put in place to bring candidate technologies into BAT guidance more quickly. The government has also chosen not to pursue several proposals: mandatory R&D notification is off the table, mandatory Associated Environmental Performance Levels are being parked, a registration approach for Medium Combustion Plant has been dropped in favour of refining the current framework, and a proposal to allow commercial confidentiality for amine emissions from carbon capture operations has been explicitly rejected on the grounds that public access to information on harmful emissions is a fundamental principle.
The substantive legislative work comes next year. The 2026 consultations will determine how dynamic BAT operates in practice, where thresholds sit for non-waste AD and electrolytic hydrogen production, how integrated pollution control is extended to SWIPs, SEAs, Medium Combustion Plant and specified generators, and whether battery manufacturing and battery energy storage systems come inside the Environmental Permitting Regulations for the first time. A separate consultation will set out the detail of the tiered permitting system under which lower-risk sites could be registered rather than permitted.
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