"This is a very welcome commonsense move. It will increase clarity and cut the administrative burden for a number of organisations without compromising the existing high standards of protection for the environment and human health. Cutting red tape also means regulators will be able to spend more time pursuing the minority of operators who deliberately flout the rules"
Joan Ruddock, Environment Minister
London, UK: The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has said that a single environmental permit will be introduced under the Environmental Permitting Programme (EPP) from April 2008. The new environmental permit will combine and streamline the previous waste management licence (WML) and pollution prevention and control (PPC) systems.
Businesses should find it simpler and less costly to be environmentally responsible under the new environmental permit regulations, according to Defra.
Environmental permits are required for industrial and waste activities which could harm human health or the environment unless they are controlled.
Changes resulting from the Environmental Permitting
Programme were consulted on last year under this joint Better Regulation initiative, through which Defra works with the Environment Agency and the Welsh Assembly Government.
In addition to estimated cost savings to business and regulators of £76m over ten years, the new system is aimed at providing a number of benefits including a simpler permit application process, clearer guidance; and more flexibility for businesses to make changes.
The new Environmental Permitting Regulations have been complex to establish as they combine over 40 separate legal instruments into a single set of regulations, whilst at the same time reducing them to less than a third of the original length.
The new permit will replacing several permits with a single site based environmental permit.
‘Standard rules’ permit
There will also be a new 'standard rules' permit for lower risk waste activities.
Standard rules permits are being developed in consultation with industry and will be published by the Environment Agency well before the new system comes into force, according to Defra.
Defra says that when the new system comes into effect all existing WML or PPC permits will automatically become environmental permits. Environmental permits will also be issued against outstanding applications should they be successful.
Environment Minister Joan Ruddock said:
"This is a very welcome commonsense move. It will increase clarity and cut the administrative burden for a number of organisations without compromising the existing high standards of protection for the environment and human health. Cutting red tape also means regulators will be able to spend more time pursuing the minority of operators who deliberately flout the rules."
Further information
More information is available on the EPP website.