Consultation outcome

Summary of responses

Updated 21 January 2021

The UK has a publicly available inventory of pollution from industrial sites and other specified sources. Known as the UK Pollutant Release and Transfer Register(PRTR), this is a searchable database providing information on the pollution from a wide range of industrial sites and for 91 pollutants dating back to 2007.

The PRTR is an environmental database of potentially hazardous chemical substances and/or pollutants released to air, water and soil, and transferred off-site for treatment or disposal. It applies to specific industrial activities which meet or exceed stated pollutant thresholds. This means that an installation whose details are not shown on the PRTR is either not an industrial activity covered by PRTR or it has not reached the stated pollutant specific thresholds.

See further detail on the applicable industrial activities, pollutants and thresholds.

The UK is a Party to the UN Kiev Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers which aims ‘to enhance public access to information through the establishment of coherent, nationwide PRTRs’. The Protocol requires Parties to provide information on pollution sources to members of the public. The UK PRTR website and database are important milestones towards the UK government’s implementation of the Kiev Protocol on PRTRs.

Parties to the Protocol are requested to prepare a national implementation report which contains information on:

• the legislative, regulatory or other measures that have been taken to implement the provisions of the Kiev Protocol
• the practical implementation of these measures at the national and regional levels

Why we asked people for their views

We sought views from interested organisations and individuals on the UK’s implementation of the Kiev Protocol on PRTR and the UK’s draft national implementation report (NIR) 2021. We invited interested organisations and individuals to submit their views with supporting evidence where possible, on the draft implementation report. The Protocol text was included in the supporting documents so that it could be reviewed alongside the draft NIR for additional context.

The public call for views was promoted on GOV.UK, and NGOs, academics (via the Air Quality Expert Group), PRTR operators and other interested stakeholders were encouraged to respond.

Overview of the call for views responses

The call for views was open for 8 weeks, between 5 October and 27 November 2020.

In total we received 8 responses from the following sectors:

• metal industry (2)
• poultry industry (2)
• pig industry (1)
• beverage industry (1)
• trade organisation – meat industry (1)
• Local Authorities (1)

Seven were received via the online form, and one responded by email. Two respondents stated they’d like to keep their responses confidential with the remainder saying they didn’t want their response kept confidential. Reasons for requesting confidentiality included general security concerns, and to protect personal safety.

Main points raised in responses

We’ve analysed the responses to the call for views and summarised them thematically:

Theme from responses received	Defra response
General questioning of value of such PRTR reporting	The UK remains committed to the objectives of PRTR both domestically and on the international scene. The UK recognises the importance of the PRTR Protocol objectives and implementation
Overall support for providing data to PRTR	Not available
Concern around confidentiality	A response to the recent call for views was relating to confidentiality. We investigated this promptly. A regulator has considered a recent confidentiality notice for the exclusion of information from the public register. However, none of the information was considered to be confidential under the meaning of 51(3) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.
Data collection and calculation	We will consider this feedback within our future UK PRTR website and systems updates and also disseminate to Competent Authorities for them to consider for their own systems.
Scope of the reporting	We will consider this feedback for any future PRTR policy updates and development.

Next steps: what we plan to do as a result of the consultation

We will be exploring the most pressing responses, such as those expressing concerns with confidentiality, immediately. We will incorporate feedback on the data collection process into our upcoming review of the UK PRTR website, and liaise with other organisations that collect data which feeds into the UK PRTR.

We have used the responses to this call for views to update the UK’s draft NIR which will be submitted to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) secretariat on 21 January 2021. The National Implementation Reports submitted by Parties will be summarised by the UNECE secretariat who will prepare a synthesis report which will be considered at the upcoming Meeting of the Parties, expected to take place in October 2021.