Your business may require an environmental permit (England and Wales) or a pollution prevention and control (PPC) permit (Northern Ireland and Scotland) from your environmental regulator or local council. For example, you will need a permit if your business has a production capacity above a certain level or if you use certain hazardous substances.
There are different categories of permit:
- England and Wales: Part A(1), Part A(2) or Part B environmental permit
- Northern Ireland: Part A, Part B or Part C PPC permit
- Scotland: Part A or Part B PPC permit.
NetRegs only provides detailed guidance for businesses that require Part B or C permits.
Part A activities
NetRegs does not provide comprehensive guidance for businesses that operate with a permit from their environmental regulator under:
- Part A(1) and Part A(2) of environmental permitting in England and Wales
- Part A of pollution prevention and control (PPC) in Northern Ireland and Scotland
- Integrated pollution control (IPC) in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
This is a complex area of regulation. For general information about the regulation of Part A sites, see the NetRegs environmental permits and PPC permits guidance.
Environmental permits
Pollution Prevention and Control permits
An example of an activity regulated under Part A is using organic solvents to treat the surfaces of substances, objects or products. This could be for dressing, printing, coating, degreasing, painting, cleaning or impregnating in plant with a consumption capacity of more than 150kg per hour or more than 200 tonnes per year.
PPC Part B activities (England, Scotland and Wales)
An example of a printing activity that requires a Part B permit in England, Scotland and Wales is if you apply printing ink, paint or any other coating material to a substrate, or dry or cure materials after their application, where the process may result in the release of particulate matter or volatile organic compounds into the air, and is likely to involve the use in any 12-month period of:
- 20 tonnes of metal coating sprayed on in molten form
- 20 tonnes or more of printing ink, paint or other coating material which is applied in solid form
- 25 tonnes or more of organic solvents in respect of any cold set web offset printing activity or any sheet fed offset litho printing activity or
- 5 tonnes or more of organic solvents in respect of any activity not mentioned above.
PPC Part B and C activities (Northern Ireland)
An example of a printing activity that requires a PPC Part B permit in Northern Ireland is if you apply printing ink, paint or any other coating material to a substrate, or dry or cure materials after their application, where the process may result in the release of particulate matter or volatile organic compounds into the air, and is likely to involve the use in any 12-month period of 400 tonnes or more of printing ink, paint or other coating material which is applied in solid form.
An example of a printing activity that requires a Part C permit in Northern Ireland is if you apply printing ink, paint or any other coating material to a substrate, or dry or cure materials after their application, where the process may result in the release of particulate matter or volatile organic compounds into the air, and is likely to involve the use in any 12-month period of:
- 20 tonnes of metal coating sprayed on in molten form
- 20 tonnes or more of printing ink, paint or other coating material which is applied in solid form
- 25 tonnes or more of organic solvents in respect of any cold set web offset printing activity or any sheet fed offset litho printing activity or
- 5 tonnes or more of organic solvents in respect of any activity not mentioned above.
This guidance does not provide a complete list of environmental permitting (England and Wales) or PPC (Northern Ireland and Scotland) activities. If you are unsure whether you are affected by environmental permitting or PPC, contact your environmental regulator or local council.
Contact your environmental regulator
Contact your local council
