UK Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) data sets
How to query UK data on waste transfers and emissions, by specific substance, area, river basin, industry or economic sector.
Pollutants are defined as ‘substances that may be harmful to the environment or to human health on account of their properties and their introduction into the environment’.
Pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs) are inventories of pollution from industrial sites and other sources. A PRTR is a national or regional environmental inventory of potentially hazardous chemical substances or pollutants released to air, water and soil and transferred off-site for treatment or disposal. Annex I of the UK PRTR legislation on PRTRs specifies which activities need to report their information. In some cases, these activities are subdivided.
The industrial or business facilities report the amounts of substances released into each environmental medium (air, water, soil), or transferred off-site for waste management or wastewater treatment.
The 2003 Kiev Protocol on PRTRs requires parties to the agreement to make this information publicly available. The UKPRTR is the publicly available register that implements the PRTR (Kiev) Protocol and UK PRTR legislation.
This register meets the requirements of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN-ECE) Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers. The public can use the register free of charge to search for PRTR data sets.
Defra will continue to:
- maintain high standards of PRTR data and its commitment to the Kiev Protocol on PRTRs
- make information available on the UK PRTR in accordance with the UK’s PRTR legislation
It is the Secretary of State’s duty to publish information on the UK PRTR website.
Information shown in the PRTR data sets
Displayed data includes:
- facility, including the facility’s parent company where applicable, and its geographical location, including the river basin
- activity
- pollutant or waste, as appropriate
- each environmental medium (air, water, land) into which the pollutant is released
- off-site transfers of waste and their destination, as appropriate
- off-site transfers of pollutants in wastewater
- period trends (time series) displayed using graphs
Features include:
- view current and previous records for each pollutant release using the time series feature
- view records of each release from each activity/all activities
- view each site’s release and transfer record and use graphs to assess trends
- view release and transfer trends in graphs from 2007
- interactively access data and view facility location using Google Earth (needs Google Earth application)
- compare release and transfer data from 2007
- compare release information using river basin districts and area
- view the destination of hazardous waste transferred out of the UK
- view waste data from industrial activities in graphs and tables
- download data in complete blocks, for example, by using activity headings with supporting facility level information
Publication of datasets
Defra aims to publish data approximately one year after the end of the calendar year under report. For example, data for the 2013 report cycle is likely to be available by the end of 2014 and in that order for subsequent years.
Reliability and validity
PRTR data is provided by operators who submit their annual emission and waste data to the appropriate regulator. A number of quality checks are built into the data collection and reporting processes. These include cross referencing information contained in permits with operator-reported PRTR data, using information from inspections and monitoring regimes to validate reported data, scrutinising and validating data from each operator for omissions, errors and/or incomplete information. Quality assurance is an ongoing exercise and is kept under regular review.
The PRTR regulation places the responsibility for data collection on the operator. The operator has a legal responsibility to monitor substances that are released by an installation using a variety of methods as specified in the operating permit and sector guidance. These are reported to the regulators who compile and check the information before it is published online.
The UK’s PRTR legislation) and the UN ECE PRTR protocol specify which industrial activities are included for reporting purposes and their associated thresholds. This means that an installation whose details are not shown on the site have not reached the stated thresholds and therefore do not have to be included. Also, for installations shown but where the threshold for reporting for a pollutant is not reached or where there has been no release, no data for the pollutant will be shown.
Search the PRTR database on your chosen parameters
The database lists data on 91 pollutants, such as amount released, when and where, based on reports from facilities that have reached the required threshold for inclusion. The search tool lets you perform queries on this data including:
- search by facility, including the facility name, parent company, location or postcode
- search by activity, including energy, metals, minerals, chemicals, waste management, paper and wood, farming, food and ‘other’
- search by economic sector, as defined by NACE
- search by pollutant, including pesticides, greenhouse gases, metals etc
- search by waste type and treatment, including hazardous, transboundary, disposal etc
- search by each environmental medium (air, water, land) into which the pollutant is released
You can also search for time comparisons of:
Pollutant release data for diffuse sources
The emission of pollutants from the sectors covered by PRTR are typically referred to as ‘point source’ data, because emissions can be tied to a specific facility or site of operation.
Diffuse emissions occur when the source of emission is more difficult to place at a specific geographic location, or where the nature of the activity that generates the emission is scattered amongst multiple small scale sites which are difficult to quantify. A good example of what can be considered diffuse emissions within the UK PRTR will include the following broad emission groups:
- emissions from road transport vehicles
- emissions from accidental building and vehicle fires
- emissions from combustion in domestic grates
- emissions from bonfires
The National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) website contains data for diffuse sources.
Pollutants and thresholds list
You can check the list of pollutants by name and chemical composition for information about environmental impact, effect on human health and current level of control.
You can switch to the thresholds view to see the different thresholds for reporting against each pollutant with in the UK PRTR.
Methods for obtaining data
The data is calculated (C), estimated (E) or measured (M) by the operator. Data reporting method may also be unspecified (U).
Within the calculated and measured categories, there are sub-categories which each have their own code.
PRTR specific method sub-categories
| Method code | Method description |
|---|---|
| C_EMEP | Calculation using the UNECE/EMEP Emission Inventory Guidebook |
| C_ETS | Calculation using the guidelines for the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions under the Emission Trading Scheme. |
| C_IPCC | Calculation using the IPCC Guidelines. |
| C_ISO | |
| C_MAB | Mass balance method which is accepted by the competent authority. |
| C_NRB | National or regional binding calculation methodology prescribed by legal act for the pollutant and facility concerned. |
| C_OTH | Other calculation methodology. |
| C_PER | Calculation methodology already prescribed by the competent authority in a licence or an operating permit for that facility. |
| C_SSC | European-wide sector specific calculation method. |
| E | Estimated. |
| M_ALT | Alternative measurement methodology in accordance with existing CEN/ISO measurement standards. |
| M_CRM | Measurement methodology for the performance of which is demonstrated by means of certified reference materials and accepted by competent authority. |
| M_ISO | Internationally approved CEN or ISO measurement standard. |
| M_NRB | National or regional binding measurement methodology prescribed by legal act for the pollutant and facility concerned. |
| M_OTH | Other measurement methodology. |
| M_PER | Measurement Methodology already prescribed by the competent authority in a licence or an operating permit for that facility |
| M_SSC | European-wide sector specific calculation method. |
| M_WEIGH | Measurement by weighing. |
| U | Unspecified |
Contact
Email: prtr@defra.gov.uk