Environmental Permit Application

If you are applying for an Environmental/ IPPC permit for the first time on a site, it can be time-consuming and costly.

• You need a permit before you start to operate, or before you exceed the permit threshold.
• Your installation has to meet the Environmental Permit standards before your permit can be issued, in effect as a new site you have to be “right first time”.
• The application forms have been simplified, but the same level of information is still required, by moving information from the forms into the supporting documents.

The timescale for a bespoke application includes:

• Application compilation time: likely to be several weeks or months, depending on the complexity of the site and processes, the quality of information you have available, and whether you need a Site Report involving a Ground Investigation.
• Submission to and assessment by relevant Environment Agency: if your application is successful, a Bespoke permit should be received within 4 months, or Standard rules within 3 months.  If the regulator requires further work before a Permit can be issued, this will take further time.

So you are looking at around 5 to 6 months for a Bespoke Permit, or longer if more detailed site information is required (as site investigations can take some time to obtain results, see our site reports page).

The information required to support your permit includes:

• A non-technical summary which is an overview of your site and operations
• A detailed process description
• The Application Site Report
• The H1 emissions risk assessment, and more detailed risk assessments if you do not meet the emissions standards within H1
• A Best Available Technique (BAT) assessment of the installation, i.e. are you following current best practice or an equivalent which has the same or better environmental outcomes; if not, what improvements you propose to make, and how long it will take to implement the improvements.
• Either the EP-OPRA spreadsheet to calculate how much you will pay to make the application and annual fees; or if you are a Low Impact site, the justification why you meet the Low Impact criteria.

Environmental Permit applications require you to submit a great deal of detailed information which is specific to your operations, and to the environment of your site.  Although it can be helpful to see what information is submitted in other permit applications, the actual data required will be unique to your site.

One issue which crops up fairly regularly is whether your site can comply with the Low Impact Criteria.  This is important in business terms, because the fees charged for Low Impact applications are generally much lower than for full permit applications, and there are also significant differences in the annual fees.

For example, a full chemical permit may cost around £6,000 to apply, and £3,000 annually, but a low impact chemical permit would be around £1,500 to apply and £500 in annual fees.  The individual environment agencies publish their fees annually, for example the Environment Agency publish their fees on the .gov.uk website, see link below.

To make matters more complicated, the Low Impact Criteria are published in two separate places on the Environment Agency website.  We have summarised these in a factsheet included in our EP Application toolkit (details below).

If you don’t have the time to compile your own EP application, or if you need expert EP IPPC advice for your site report, contact Janet on 01422 24 22 22 or email Janet.

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