Business activities that may cause pollution or pose another risk to the environment are regulated. You must ensure that you have appropriate authorisation for the activities your business carries out. Some permits are issued by the national Environmental Agency, others by your local authority.

This guide outlines the main environmental authorisations, including: environmental permits and exemptions, trade effluent consents and agreements for discharges to public sewers, water abstraction and impoundment licences, and hazardous waste registration.

Types of environmental licences and permits

You may require authorisation (in the form of permits, licences, consents, registrations, notifications or exemptions) to carry out certain types of business activities. You must comply with the conditions stipulated by the authorisation, because they aim to control the impact of your activities on the environment.

In most cases, you'll need to apply to your national Environmental Agency, which is the main environmental regulator. Local authorities and water companies are in charge of some types of authorisation.

You will need authorisation if you:

• carry out activities or operations at a regulated facility, including listed activities, waste operations, mining waste operations, water discharge activities, groundwater activities or radioactive substances activities
• discharge trade effluent into the public foul sewer
• take water from surface waters or groundwater, or obstruct these waters in any way
• transport waste, or arrange for someone else to do so
• produce or move hazardous waste
• produce greenhouse gas emissions that are covered by the European Union emissions trading system or the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme