United Kingdom

• Author: Owen Lomas, Douglas Bryden, and Carl Boeuf
• Pages: 581-604

CHAPTER 30

United Kingdom

OWEN LOMAS, DOUGLAS BRYDEN, AND CARL BOEUF

I. Introduction

This chapter provides a high-level overview of environment law in the

United Kingdom (U.K.) and looks at key practical issues including environ-

mental permitting, protection of land and water resources, nature conserva-

tion, environmental impact assessment, and waste and hazardous materials

management. It also briefly discusses laws to control and respond to the

effects of climate change.

U.K. environmental law has a long history, with the first formal attempts

to control the polluting effects of the industrial revolution dating back to the

19th century. Common law torts such as nuisance have also provided an

indirect route to environmental protection for a similar period. The current

scope of U.K. environmental law is very broad and has expanded rapidly

since the early 1990s, largely as a result of legislative and policy develop-

ments at the European Union (EU) level. Consequently, this is a heavily reg-

ulated area, with detailed, complex, and often overlapping regimes.

Additionally, while health and safety and planning matters are generally

regulated separately from environmental matters, there are a number of

areas of common ground.

The U.K. government departments with primary responsibility for devel-

oping environmental policy and law are the Department for Environment,

Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department of Energy and Climate

Change (DECC). Additionally, the Department for Business, Innovation and

Skills (BIS) takes the lead with respect to product-related environmental reg-

ulation. The Environment Agency (EA) is the regulator with primary respon-

sibility for environmental law enforcement, although local authorities also

carry out these functions for some (generally lower risk) activities.

The first part of this chapter, as for the other jurisdiction-specific chap-

ters in this book, sets out U.K. environmental law in terms of the environ-

mental media and activities to which it applies (air, water, land, waste

management, etc.). However, it should be noted that the Environmental Per-

mitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 (as amended) (EPR), which

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provide the regulatory framework concerning the control of environmentally

impacting activities in England and Wales, provide for a single integrated

environmental permit that seeks to regulate the permit holder’s material

environmental impacts across all environmental media and activities. Equiv-

alent regimes exist in Scotland1 and Northern Ireland.2

It should also be noted that the EU is increasingly moving toward a

holistic “life cycle” approach to the environmental regulation of products

(including packaging)—seeking to limit the environmental impacts of such

products at each stage from design to disposal. For example, regimes such as

the EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemi-

cals (REACH) regulation3 and recast Directive on the Restriction of the Use

of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment

(RoHS)4 restrict the use of certain substances in the manufacture of specified

product types. Other laws govern issues such as the environmental impacts

and energy efficiency of products prior to disposal. Additionally, EU-derived

“producer responsibility” regimes exist, which require producers to take

financial responsibility for the environmental impact of the products that

they place on the market when those products become waste. In the U.K.,

there are separate EU-derived producer responsibility regimes with respect

to waste packaging,5 Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE),6 batteries7

and motor vehicles,8 for example.

It should finally be noted that there is some variation between the envi-

ronmental laws of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. This

chapter primarily deals with the laws of England and Wales, unless other-

wise specified.

II. Air and Climate Change

A. Air Pollution Control

Emissions to air are primarily regulated through permits under the EPR.

Such permits govern most gaseous emissions other than carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide is regulated separately via greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

permits, which are discussed below. EPR permits contain emission limit val-

ues and other conditions based on the application of best available tech-

niques (BAT).9 Emissions must be monitored and reported against the

emission limit values. Operating a regulated facility without a permit or

breaching a permit condition is a criminal offense.10 Conviction for the most

serious offenses under the EPR may lead to an unlimited fine and imprison-

ment for up to five years.11

Additionally, enforcement of air pollution standards may also be under-

taken by local authorities under the Environment Act 1995, which requires

those authorities to review and assess compliance with the U.K. Air Qual-

ity Strategy (which consolidates European and international air pollution

standards) in their area. If the standards are not being met, local authori-

ties may designate air quality management areas and implement remedial

action plans.

582 INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW