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Environmental permitting: Why do we need it?
Permitting and compliance systems have developed separately over time and have adopted different procedures and rules despite aiming for the same goal which is to protect the environment and human health. This has led to a regulatory system that is unnecessarily complex. In line with feedback from both industry and regulators we feel that the permitting systems need to be modernised to increase efficiency and flexibility..
- The Hampton review (March 2005) recommended proportionality in regulation by the application of effective risk-based approaches. Its follow-up review, the Hampton Implementation Review (2008) on the Environment Agency, lists EPP1 as a positive example of Defra and the Environment Agency working on streamlining and rationalising processes for business and therefore encouraging economic progress.
- The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) guide on how to implement European Directive effectively (September 2007) gave the EPP, with subsequent expansion to other environmental permitting systems, as an example of good practice in implementing directives.
- The EPP featured as a “best practice” case study in the EU Best Project Report (June 2006). The report noted the system’s capability of extension as its key feature (to later contain other systems such as water quality and radioactive substances).
- Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee report on The Environment Agency (May 2006) welcomed the development of a common regulatory framework and recommended extension of this common framework to other systems.
- Better Regulation Task Force report (March 2005) highlighted that the procedures for IPPC [integrated pollution prevention and control] and waste management are different, yet their objective to protect the environment is the same.
Page last modified: 11 March 2010
Page published: 2 October 2005