Guidance

Environmental permits: when and how you are charged

How the Environment Agency charges for activities that need an environmental permit and the charges you must pay.

• From: Environment Agency
• Published: 21 March 2018
• Last updated: 21 February 2024 — See all updates

Documents

Environmental permits: when and how you are charged

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Details

Guidance on charges for:

• permit application
• varying a permit
• transferring a permit
• surrendering a permit
• annual subsistence charges

This document gives information on how to pay.

You should also read the document Environmental permits and abstraction licences: tables of charges which explains the legal basis for the Environment Agency’s charges. It also gives the:

• application charge tables for environmental permits
• subsistence charge tables for environmental permits
• miscellaneous environmental permitting charge tables

Contact the Environment Agency if you are not sure which charge applies to your operations.

General enquiries

National Customer Contact Centre
PO Box 544
Rotherham
S60 1BY

Email enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk

Telephone 03708 506 506

Telephone from outside the UK (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm GMT) +44 (0) 114 282 5312

Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Published 21 March 2018
Last updated 21 February 2024 + show all updates

1. 21 February 2024

   Updated section '2.4 Staged application procedure charge' and included link to guidance about submitting application information in stages if your proposal is complex and or a novel technology.

2. 1 July 2022

   Under 6.3.1 Waste incinerators and co-incinerators we have explained that there is a higher charge from when construction of a new plant begins until 2 years after it has been commissioned. Table 2.6 in the Table of charges lists the charges for new and existing plants.

3. 28 April 2022

   Included new charges for fusion activity. Provided further information and additional examples for application charges. Updated links to the Environment Agency (Environmental Permitting and Abstraction Licensing) (England) Charging Scheme 2022.

4. 5 August 2020

   We have clarified the following: the purpose of the pre-application service, and which pre-application advice is covered by the application charge and which is chargeable.

5. 1 April 2019

   Updated with new charges following a consultation.

6. 1 August 2018

   Section 6.4 First year of operation charge: Minor update to clarify what the Environment Agency does for the additional first year charge.

7. 9 July 2018

   Amended to provide additional clarification and examples.

8. 21 March 2018

   First published.