"The proposals set out a new system consisting of fewer, simpler rules and clearer guidance. Defra intends that this unified approach should allow industry, regulators and the public to focus more on environmental outcomes and less on how they are achieved"
Defra has issued the Environmental Permitting Programme summary of responses on the second consultation. The consultation was on the proposals for creating a streamlined environmental permitting and compliance system.
The Government’s Environmental Permitting Programme (EPP) is a Better Regulation initiative designed to reduce costs for business and regulators by cutting red tape, without changing levels of protection for the environment and human health.
It aim’s to do this by streamlining and simplifying environmental permitting and compliance systems.
Background
Historically, environmental permitting regimes in England and Wales have developed largely independently of each other.
This occurred in response to the particular pressures and circumstances prevailing at the time. This has led to an overall regulatory system that is thought to be excessively complex and to impose unnecessary administrative burdens.
Defra says that this has also found support from the Better Regulation Task force and the National Audit Office.
Defra’s Five Year Strategy, “Delivering the Essentials of Life”, contains a commitment to launch a programme to modernise environmental permitting systems.
This Environmental Permitting Programme proposes to combine the Pollution Prevention & Control (PPC) and waste management licensing systems into a common permitting and compliance system. It is estimated that one result of this should be savings of around £90m over 10 years.
Some businesses currently operate with both types of permit, in some instances on the same site.
First review
A project team was set up in 2003 to review the waste management licensing system. During 2004 the Department concluded that work on the project should be suspended.
A fair amount of work had been done on the project prior to suspension. In August 2004 Defra sent out an explanatory letter to interested parties saying that the Waste Permit Review had twin purposes:
- in the medium term to provide a waste permitting system delivering more
effective risk-based regulation;
- in the short term to provide a suitable vehicle for transposing the permitting
requirements of the WEEE Directive.
The Review team had previously been engaged in intensive informal consultation on a number of work packages. These set out the elements of a new system of environmental permitting for waste recovery and disposal operations.
It became evident to the team that, despite the progress made under the review, there were significant risks of the new system not reliably delivering either of its objectives, at least on time.
There were 2 basic reasons for this:
- The Environment Agency had become convinced that the objective of substantial efficiency gains might require a more fundamental reform of their licensing systems than simply a new permit covering waste, e.g. the possibility of covering also at least PPC permits.
- The complexity of some of the issues raised by the permitting review suggested that they could not all be satisfactorily resolved in time to use the new vehicle for WEEE permitting.
Ministers therefore concluded that the review should be suspended to enable the permitting team to concentrate on ensuring timely implementation of the WEEE permitting requirements of Article 6 of the WEEE Directive.
Second review
The second consultation was issued on 13 September 2006 and closed on 6 December.
The proposals set out a new system consisting of fewer, simpler rules and clearer guidance. Defra intends that this unified approach should allow industry, regulators and the public to focus more on environmental outcomes and less on how they are achieved.
Specific proposals include:
- changes to the way applications are made and determined;
- changes to the variation, transfer and surrender of permits;
- changes to procedures for demonstrating the competence of operators.
The system that will be subject to the most change is the waste management system as this is the older of the 2 systems.
The proposals are designed in such a way as to facilitate the extension of this new approach to other existing and future environmental permitting and compliance systems in due course.
Further Information
The original consultation documentation can be found on the Defra website as also can the summary of responses received to the consultation.
[Source Defra website – parts of the above article are Crown © 2006_07]