UK technical guidance

UK technical guidance is created for use with existing Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) or waste or other guidance, and deals with issues included in IPPC that may not have been covered in the previous regulatory regimes, such as accidents, energy, noise, site restoration and the like. It lays down some general standards and expectations in the UK (England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) for the techniques and standards that need to be addressed to satisfy the Regulations. The guidance documents have been arranged to:

  • provide a clear structure and methodology that Operators making an application should follow to ensure that all aspects of the PPC regulations and other relevant regulations have been addressed, so it should assist the Operator to make a satisfactory application;

  • minimise the effort by both operator and regulator in the permitting of an installation by using clear indicative standards and material from previous applications as well as from accredited Environmental Management Systems (EMS);

  • improve the consistency of applications by ensuring that all relevant issues are addressed;

  • increase the transparency of the Permitting process by having a structure in which the Operator's response to each issue, and any departures from the standards, can be seen clearly;

  • improve the consistency of regulation across installations and sectors by facilitating the comparison of applications;

  • provide a summary of BATs for pollution control.

To assist operators in making applications, separate, horizontal guidance is also available on a range of topics such as waste minimisation, monitoring, calculating stack heights and so on. Most of this guidance is available free through the Environment Agency, SEPA or EHS (Northern Ireland) websites.

This is a list of the UK technical guidance presently in use in Scotland. There may be additional guidance applicable to installations in other areas of the UK. For further information please see the Environment Agency's website:

Environment Agency external link