Environmental Permitting consultation launched for industrial activities

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has launched an eight-week consultation which seeks views on the proposed reforms aimed at overhauling the outdated industrial emissions permitting framework in England.

The proposed changes focus on industrial activities only, such as installations and medium combustion plants. They do not cover waste operations, mining waste operations, radioactive substances activities, water discharge activities, groundwater activities or flood risk activities.

The current regulatory system has managed to successfully reduce industrial pollution and deliver over £52 billion in benefits to human health, ecosystems and labour productivity. However, it was found that the regime is outdated, slow and not flexible enough to support rapid industrial and clean energy transformation. These reforms are playing a key part in the government's broader Plan for Change and the 10-year Industrial Strategy, which aims to accelerate innovation, streamline regulation and support net-zero transition.

The proposals in this consultation are set out in five chapters:

Chapter 1: Enabling innovation and encouraging new technologies

Permitting processes can act as barriers to innovation, especially for research and development (R&D) activities. This Chapter explores new approaches to R&D, including:

• creating regulatory "sandboxes" to allow time-limited trials of novel technologies;
• updating exemptions for R&D to ensure effectiveness;
• modernising guidance on emerging techniques; and
• new approaches to protecting commercial confidentiality while maintaining transparency.

Chapter 2: Agile standards - rapid, predictable and integrated standard setting

Current standards can be slow to update, which might create uncertainty and delays in deploying clean technologies. Reforms would:

• give the Environment Agency responsibility for setting Best Available Techniques (BAT) in England within a clear legislative framework, working in partnership across the UK;
• explore the use of "horizontal BAT" to create cross-sector standards and mandatory associated environmental performance limits (AEPLs), alongside integrated pollution control for industries of all sizes;
• introduce integrated pollution control for all sizes of industry to consolidate and streamline regulation, better control emissions to water and land, to ease the pressure on the water system.

Chapter 3: Proportionate regulation and coherence in the framework

The permitting framework should be proportionate to the pollution risks of activities and provide certainty for emerging clean technologies.

The proposed reforms include:

• flexible regulatory tiers for low-risk activities, such as simple registration instead of full permits;
• sector-specific updates, such as streamlined rules for data centre backup generators, small-scale green hydrogen production and combustion plants;
• adding some new activities to the regime, such as battery storage, battery manufacturing, non-waste anaerobic digestion and mining;
• simplify and modernise the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations SI 2016/1154 to remove duplication and speed up processes.

Chapter 4: Regulator effectiveness and efficiency

Under the new proposals, regulators should be able to deliver permits and deliver risk-based decisions quickly and proportionately, while recovering costs fairly.

The key proposals include:

• staged permitting for complex projects;
• more flexible permits allowing emissions within an overall cap, and addressing environmental capacity at industrial clusters;
• reducing duplication of data requirements;
• reviewing the system for local authority fees and charges;
• increased flexibility in setting site-specific emission limit values within ranges set out in sectoral BAT legislation.

Chapter 5: A transparent framework

Transparency is key to meeting international obligations, setting clear requirements and enabling local communities to understand pollution control.

The proposals involve modernising the UK Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR), expanding the range of pollutants reported and streamlining the reporting requirements.

What comes next

This consultation runs from 26 August 2025 until 21 October 2025. DEFRA seeks feedback from the industry currently covered by the permitting regime, NGOs, academics and the interested parties. The responses will inform detailed policy proposals and shape future legislation.

Although this consultation applies to England only, DEFRA intends to align the consultation findings with the devolved administrations to develop a UK-wide BAT framework where feasible.

For more information on this subject, see:

• Consultation on modernising environmental permitting for industry;
• Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations SI 2016/1154.