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Contaminated Land - links to other Government policy areas

The remediation and prevention of contaminated land touches upon a variety of other areas. The main related areas are set out below.


Building control

Building work is subject to Building Control under the Building Regulations 1991. The approval process is carried out by Building Control bodies which include local authority technical officers or Approved Inspectors. Under Schedule 1 of these Regulations Requirement C2 states that "precautions shall be taken to avoid danger to health and safety caused by substances found on or in the ground covered by the building." It should be noted that if contaminating substances in the ground have the potential to attack building materials it may lead to a breach of Part A of these Regulations which relate to Structural safety. Approved Document "C" sets out how contamination should be addressed in building control:

Contamination of water

The Part IIA regime, covers the pollution of controlled waters where contaminated land is the cause. In other cases the Environment Agency have powers under the Water Resources Act 1991 to prevent and remedy the pollution of controlled water. Other information about water quality can be obtained from Defra's Water Quality Division and from the Air, Land and Water Science Group of the Environment Agency.

Environmental Permitting Programme

The Environmental Permitting Programme consultation was launched on 20 February 2006. Defra is consulting on proposals to combine the Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) and waste licensing systems into a common permitting and compliance framework.

Health protection

The Health Protection Agency provides advice and information to Government, local authorities, the NHS and other agencies in respect of chemical, radiation and other hazards, in support of their roles in respect of public health protection:

Planning

Local planning authorities should take account of contamination or the potential for contamination both in preparing development plans, which set out the policies and proposals for future land use and development within their area, and in determining individual applications for planning permission. Planning permission may be granted on condition that the site is remediated to the satisfaction of the local authority.

Following consultation, new planning guidance (PPS23) was launched on 3 November 2004. This includes an annex 2 which gives more detailed guidance about development on land affected by contamination. The PPS appears on the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) website as follows:

Pollution control

Under the Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) regime, the Environment Agency control releases to air, land and water from major industrial processes through a system of prior permitting. The regime gives the Agency the power to take action to remedy harm, which could apply to cases of land contamination.

A new Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) regime is now progressively replacing IPC, and implementing the requirements of the EC Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC). For further information see summary of PPC. The PPC Regulations are also available at: www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/si/si2000/20001973.htm. The IPPC Directive requires a wider range of environmental impacts to be taken into account when issuing permits, including site restoration. In order to meet these requirements, operators will be required to submit site condition reports when applying for a permit under PPC, and when a site closes. Any contamination occurring during the period of operation as a result of the permitted activities will need to be remedied by the operator. For further information see summary of IPPC.


Regeneration/Brownfields

The Government encourages the use of previously developed land to limit the unnecessary development of greenfield areas. The contaminated land regime will encourage the remediation of contaminated land and help to return land to beneficial use. Not all brownfield land is contaminated but tackling it will help deal with the legacy of historic contamination.

Soil

The Government’s policies for soil protection, and EU developments on soil and contaminated land are dealt with in a separate section on Soil.

UK Resilience

UK Resilience is the website of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, which is part of the Cabinet Office. This provides links and information in the event of major incidents, including that of land contamination. This was set up to improve the UK's resilience against disruptive challenges through working with others to anticipate, assess, prevent, prepare, respond and recover. It provides links to government and non-government sources on a wide variety of emergencies and crises that can affect the UK, plus emergency planning guidance and government information.

Waste

The waste management licensing system (Part II, EPA 1990) interacts with the contaminated land regime in a number of ways. Anyone who deposits, recovers or disposes of controlled waste must do so either within the conditions of a waste management licence, or within the conditions of an exemption from waste licensing and must not cause pollution of the environment, harm to human health or serious detriment to local amenities. The Environment Agency are responsible for operating this licensing system, which can be used to secure remediation of land contamination arising from currently licensed activities or illegal dumping.

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Page last modified: 11 December 2007
Page published: 18 August 2003

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs