Our consultation on sixteen new or revised sets of rules for standard permits for waste operations has now closed (closing date: 28 August 2009).
Background information
The Government consulted on changes to waste exemptions and this consultation ended in October 2008. The consultation suggested that a number of existing exemptions could be replaced with Standard Permits and some would need bespoke permits. To date the Government has not issued its response to the consultation comments and has not indicated whether it will move these exempt operations into permitting.
Our consultation on the standard rules does not commit the Government to any changes; it invites comments on the permits that we intend to apply in the event that the waste activities identified in this consultation are made subject to the permitting requirements of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 (EP Regulations).
We have already carried out some informal consultation on the development of the standard rules with the affected industries through a series of workshops and correspondence.
This formal consultation is your chance to influence the standard rules and generic risk assessments that could control the parts of waste management activities that are currently exempt from the Environmental (EP) Regulations, if the Exemption Review moves these activities into permitting.
The exempt activities that these rules are intended to partially replace are:
- Paragraphs 6, 7 and 28 (land-spreading)
- Paragraph 9 (land restoration and reclamation)
- Paragraph 12 (composting)
- Paragraph 13 (waste treatment)
- Paragraph 19 (construction)
- Paragraph 45 (scrap metal)
We are also taking this opportunity to consult on new standard rules to cover anaerobic digestion activities — including treatment and storage.
Consultation documents
Please note that the provision of rule sets; SR2009No20, SR2009No21 SR2009No22 and the amendments to SR2008No21 is not dependent on the Government response to the Exemption Review consultation.
Standard Rules
You can find a list of our existing standard permit rules sets on the following web page:
Frequently asked questions
Form - Representations for new waste streams
What happens next?
Your comments helped to determine how the formerly exempt activities from the EP Regulations are controlled by Standard Rules Permits.
We considered all the responses before publishing the final standard rules and generic risk assessments later in 2009.
We published a summary consultation document that outlines the key issues raised by the responses to the draft standard rules and generic risk assessments and also the consultation questions.
More information
Further information can be found on our environmental permitting web pages, which you can access at the link below:
The Environmental Permitting Regulations are a product of the Environmental Permitting Programme, our joint project with Defra and the Welsh Assembly Government. It aims to reduce administrative burdens while maintaining standards of environmental protection.
For more information look on Defra's Environmental Permitting Programme web pages:
