Guidance and regulation

Where you’ll find clean air zones, how to check if you’ll need to pay a charge and create a business account, and what support or exemptions are available.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Updated: 26 March 2024

How councils deal with complaints about noise at night, intruder alarms, construction noise and loudspeakers in the street.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Updated: 21 December 2017

How councils deal with complaints about smoke from premises that's a statutory nuisance, smoke that's exempt and how smoke can be assessed.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Updated: 1 May 2022

How to meet the general binding rules if your septic tank or small sewage treatment plant releases (discharges) waste water to the ground.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 2 October 2023

How to meet the general binding rules if your septic tank or small sewage discharge treatment plant releases (discharges) waste water to a surface water.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 2 October 2023

Apply for a grant to restore and improve rivers, streams, canals, lakes, ponds, wetlands or estuarine waters.

• From: Rural Payments Agency
• Updated: 9 April 2024

How councils assess and deal with nuisance odours from industrial, trade and business premises.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Updated: 7 April 2015

Common causes of artificial light nuisance, lights that are exempt and how councils can assess light.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Updated: 7 April 2015

How to change details of your environmental permit, transfer it to somebody else or cancel it.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 25 August 2023

Get help to improve water and air quality, and reduce flood risk on agricultural land.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 2 others
• Updated: 21 March 2023

Identify, describe, classify and manage waste upholstered domestic seating containing persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 26 April 2024

Find out where SPZs are, what defines the different zones and why the Environment Agency must protect groundwater from pollution.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 1 August 2019

How businesses and organisations can avoid causing pollution from oil and chemical storage, car washing, construction and other activities.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 8 January 2024

How to complete an air emissions risk assessment, including how to calculate the impact of your emissions and the standards you must meet.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 21 December 2023

How to develop a management system and keep it up to date so that you can carry out activities under an environmental permit.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 3 April 2023

How to assess and manage the risks from land contamination.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 20 July 2023

What you must do to manage manure, fertiliser and soil to prevent runoff, erosion and leaching.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 1 others
• Updated: 2 April 2018

How to assess the impact of your activity in estuarine (transitional) and coastal waters for the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The guidance is called Clearing the Waters for All.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 9 October 2023

Explains the definition of ‘regulated facility’ and how they are grouped into classes.

• From: Environment Agency
• Updated: 3 May 2019

Find out if and by when you need to apply for a medium combustion plant directive (MCPD) environmental permit to meet air quality requirements.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and 3 others
• Updated: 12 December 2023