Does your business require an environmental permit or a pollution prevention and control permit?

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

Leather processing activities that are regulated under Part A include tanning hides and skins in a plant with a treatment capacity of more than 12 tonnes per day of finished product.

Part B activities (England, Scotland and Wales) and Part C activities (Northern Ireland)

Examples of leather activities that are regulated under Part B in England, Scotland and Wales and Part C in Northern Ireland include any:

  • activity which releases particulate matter to the air 
  • activity which may cause an offensive smell that is noticeable outside your premises 
  • coating applied to leather using five tonnes or more of organic solvent per year
  • surface cleaning activity that uses one tonne or more per year of a volatile organic compound (VOC) classified as a carcinogen, mutagen or toxic to reproduction (with Risk Phrases R45, R46, R49, R60 or R61), and any halogenated VOCs with possible irreversible effects (Risk Phrase R40) 
  • surface cleaning activity that uses two tonnes or more per year of any other VOC.

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

Further information

Guidance for your business type