The Environment Agency is responsible for granting or refusing environmental permits, setting the permit conditions, and making sure that permit holders comply with them. 

We do this by carrying out periodic audits and inspections to check that the operators are complying with their permit conditions. 

We also investigate complaints of amenity issues and make sure the operator is taking measures to prevent or minimise any amenity issues off site. On every inspection, we always conduct an odour audit outside the permit boundary prior to a formal inspection. 

If a breach of permit conditions is identified, we will investigate and take appropriate enforcement action; this action can range from advice and guidance through to prosecution for serious offences.

It is our role to assess compliance with the permits and to take appropriate regulatory action if we identify any breaches. 

We do so by reference to our enforcement and sanctions policy and the Government’s core guidance on environmental permitting, and with appropriate regard to the Regulators' Code.

Our regulatory team assess compliance with the permit conditions in several ways including site inspection, audit, off-site odour assessments, and review of reports and monitoring data.

We charge all permit-holders subsistence fees, which cover the cost of these routine regulatory activities. Subsistence fees do not cover provision of a constant officer presence on any permitted site. This is explained in more detail in the guidance to our charging scheme.

A Compliance Assessment Record (CAR) form is used to record the findings of our site inspections, audits and monitoring activities, reviews of monitoring and other data/reports. 

We use our guidance on assessing and scoring environmental permit compliance to score permit breaches in accordance with our Compliance Classification Scheme (CCS).

The risk category and score we give a non-compliance reflects the potential impact it could have if it were not addressed promptly and adequately. 

The only exception is for non-compliances relating to amenity conditions - odour, dust, noise and pests. We categorise the risk and score these according to their actual (rather than potential) impact.

There are 4 risk categories of non-compliance. They represent the severity of the reasonably foreseeable impact, or in the case of amenity conditions, the actual impact. Each risk category is scored. The scores are accumulated during the compliance year.

Find out more about how we ensure permit compliance:

Waste operations and installations: assessing and scoring environmental permit compliance - GOV.UK

This guide applies to all permit holders with permits regulated under the Environmental Permitting Regulations. It includes those carrying out the following activities:

• waste operations
• installations, including intensive farming

The Waste Classification and Technical interpretation and management can be found https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/waste-classification-technical-guidance This will give an understanding on what waste is deemed potentially Hazardous, and how we interpret the information to treat or remove the environmental impact.

We do not regulate on human health. We will however work in unison with the Health and Safety Executive (UKHSE) and the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) when required. Such instances can be from inappropriate safety regimes on a site we regulate or when illness could be a possible cause linked to a particular operator. For example, escape of emissions such as dust, smoke or noise, importantly, this might have an affect on mental health as well as physical health. If in doubt please contact:

UKHSE - https://www.gov.uk/health-and-safety-executive

UKHSA - https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-health-security-agency