Check if you need an environmental permit
Download this document free
Get this document with your free trial. Choose from the full Complyzard library.
Try 1 month free30 days free, then $19/month. Trial terms apply. Card required. Cancel anytime.Document information
When you may need an environmental permit or licence for activities that could pollute, increase flood risk, affect land drainage or affect water resources. Check the rules and get advice before you start operating.
Adapted edition
- Document type
- Reference Guide
- Format
- DOCX
- Pages
- 4
- Language
- English
- Version
- 1.0
- Updated
- 2026-09-17
- Category
- Safety & operations
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0
Description
When you may need an environmental permit or licence for activities that could pollute, increase flood risk, affect land drainage or affect water resources. Check the rules and get advice before you start operating. Consult the original guidance for current legal and operational details.
Contents
- What you need a permit or licence for
- Check if you need a permit or licence and who to apply to
- Installation
- Waste or mining waste operation
- Medium combustion plant or specified generator
- Small waste incineration plant
- Mobile plant
- Solvent emissions activity
- Stand-alone water discharge or groundwater activity
- Flood risk activities on or near a main river or sea defence
- Radioactive substances
- Abstracting water
- Impounding water
- If you're not sure what to do
Source and licence
Environment Agency
AttributionEnvironment Agency, ‘Check if you need an environmental permit’ (updated 2 March 2026), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
ChangesNeutral text-only adaptation from the official GOV.UK Content API body: headings, paragraphs, ordered and unordered list items and clickable source-link destinations in an appendix preserved. Images, logos, page design, accessible-format request widgets and linked attachments excluded; normalised whitespace, invisible format marks and typography.
Version history
- v1.017/09/2026