The Environmental Permitting Regulations (EPR) superseded the Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) and Waste Management Licensing (WML) Regulations in England and Wales in 2010, and covers many industrial activities from chemicals to minerals, metals to food and drink. The requirements in Scotland are similar and are regulated under the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2012, which came into force in 2013.

These regulations apply an integrated approach to the regulation of certain industrial activities. This means that emissions to air, water (including discharges to sewer) and land, plus a range of other environmental aspects, must be considered together.

Operators of installations that fall under these regulations must apply for an environmental permit in order to operate. Permit conditions are set with the aim of achieving a high level of protection for the environment. The operator must use Best Available Techniques (BAT) to prevent and minimise emissions, aiming to balance the costs to the operator against the benefits to the environment as much as practicable.

KK Risk can assist with preparing the application for the environmental permit and we can assess the design and operation of your facility against BAT. For existing facilities with an environmental permit, we can conduct a permit review with the aim of ensuring that high level conditions attached to permits are not creating bottlenecks for the safe and reliable operation of the facility. In this case, KK Risk can assist in providing a demonstration that can support an application for a variation of the permit conditions.