Guidance

How the Environment Agency meets the Regulators’ Code

Updated 19 April 2021

The Regulators’ Code provides a framework for how regulators should engage with those they regulate.

The Environment Agency aims to provide its regulated customers with an efficient and professional service to meet the requirements of the Regulators’ Code.

1. Environmental regulator

We implement the regulations and environmental standards set by government. We regulate a wide range of business sectors and activities, including:

• industry – including chemicals, food and drink, metals, power generation, refineries and fuels, paper and textiles, cement and minerals
• water companies – including discharges from sewage treatment works and sewerage systems and the abstraction of surface and groundwater
• waste management – including waste storage, treatment, landfill and incineration
• energy intensive industries and other large consumers of energy
• the use, storage and disposal of radioactive substances
• agriculture – including water abstraction, discharges to surface and groundwater, spreading waste on land, disposal of pesticides and sheep dip and intensive farming (of pig and poultry units)
• producers of packaging, batteries, waste electrical and electronic equipment and vehicles
• angling, navigation on some waterways and works on rivers to manage flood risk

Our vision is to create a better place for people and wildlife. Our 5 year action plan EA2025, translates our vision for the future into action.

The plan sets out 3 long term goals:

• a nation resilient to climate change
• healthy air, land and water
• green growth and a sustainable future

As part of our wider commitment to transparency, our annual report and accounts show how we have addressed important issues facing the environment during the year and show progress in meeting our corporate objectives.

2. How we work with businesses

We carry out our activities in a way that supports our regulated customers. Regulating for people, the environment and growth sets out our approach to environmental regulation in the context of current and future challenges. It describes our role as a fair and proportionate regulator that works to protect people and the environment, supporting business and sustainable economic growth while targeting illegal operators.

The government requires us to recover the costs of our main regulatory services from the businesses we regulate. Our objective is to make the level of regulatory effort proportionate to the environmental risk of the permitted activity and for this to be reflected in our charges.

How we charge for activities that need an environmental permit is an example of how we are implementing this approach and shows how good operator performance can result in reduced charges.

We publish data and reports on the performance of the businesses we regulate, including information on our regulatory activities and the impact of changes through the business impact target.

3. Help to get it right

We provide advice that supports compliance that can be relied on. We are improving the way our advice and guidance is written, making it easier for businesses to find what they need.

Our customer service commitment sets out the standards of service you should expect from us.

4. Inspections and other compliance checks

We use different ways to assess how well permit holders are complying with their permits. These include:

• targeted site inspections and audits
• reviewing data from operator self-monitoring against permit limits
• assessment of the effectiveness of an operator’s environmental management system
• third party assurance schemes

We adopt a risk-based approach to assessing and scoring environmental permit compliance.

This means that we apply more regulatory scrutiny to those whose activities pose a greater risk to the environment or human health.

We will report the outcome of our compliance activities to operators and give them feedback on how they are performing. Where we find non-compliance with the requirements of a permit, we will score it using our Compliance Classification Scheme.

5. Response to non-compliance

You can read about the Environment Agency’s position on enforcement, sanctions and offence response options.

Underlying our commitment to firm but fair regulation is the principle of proportionality in securing compliance and targeting of enforcement action.

6. Have your say

6.1 Complaints and appeals

We are always willing to discuss our regulatory decisions and actions.

We manage complaints about any area of our work or challenges to our regulatory actions through our complaints and appeals procedures.

6.2 Contact the Environment Agency

We value your feedback to help us make sure our services meet your needs. We use customer satisfaction surveys from time to time but welcome feedback at any time.

For general enquiries or to provide feedback contact the Environment Agency.