Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016—water discharge activities

Produced in partnership with Craig Burman of Schofield Sweeney

Practice notes

Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016—water discharge activities

Produced in partnership with Craig Burman of Schofield Sweeney

Practice notes

The regulatory regime

The governing provisions for Environmental permitting are in the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (EPR 2016), SI 2016/1154. EPR 2016 came into force on 1 January 2017 and consolidated all of the amendments to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 (EPR 2010), SI 2010/675. EPR 2010 replaced the provisions of Water Resources ACT 1991 that dealt with discharge consents and water pollution offences. EPR 2010 is revoked in full from 9 May 2024. The EPR 2016 is the principle legislation governing the environmental permitting and compliance regime which applies to various activities and industries.

The appropriate agency (or regulator) in England is normally the Environment Agency (EA) and in Wales it is normally Natural Resources Wales (NRW).

For more on environmental permitting, see:

•
Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016—permits, applications and exemptions
•
Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016—permit determinations and appeals
•
Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016—enforcement, offences and civil sanctions
•
Water-related permits and exemptions—overview

Criminal offences

A person must not cause or knowingly permit a water discharge

Craig Burman

Schofield Sweeney

Craig is a director and head of Schofield Sweeney’s Environmental and Regulatory team. He qualified as a barrister and solicitor in New Zealand and practiced in a broad mixture of contentious litigation matters before moving to the UK in 2001.

Between 2008 and 2015 Craig worked in house at the Environment Agency, including as Principal Solicitor for Enforcement and Prosecutions (Yorkshire and North East), and then Regional Solicitor (Yorkshire and North East), before being appointed as the Senior Managing Lawyer of the national Enforcement and Prosecutions team.

Craig advises on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious environmental matters including waste, water pollution, air pollution, packaging waste, environmental permit compliance, fisheries offences, noise and odour, drainage and flooding, contaminated land, REACH compliance, fracking and agricultural matters. Craig advises on a wide range of other regulatory compliance matters and acts for a number of Internal Drainage Boards and local authorities.

Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

Environment definition

What does Environment mean?

The environment includes all or any of the following media; air, water and land and any living organisms (including humans) or ecosystems supported by those media.

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