Guidance on complying with an environmental permit for an installation

For sector specific technical information on complying with your environmental permit for installations, we recommend using technical guidance for regulated industry available on Gov.uk.

Gov.uk has EA sector specific guidance on how to comply with an environmental permit and also links to EU published BAT conclusions.

You can view a full list of available guidance from the Environment Agency on Gov.uk

We use European Best Available Techniques (BAT) conclusions as additional guidance on complying with sector specific permits. Where BAT conclusions are not published, we use the EA's 'How to comply additional guidance'.

Within Wales we would use the following available guidance as part of our compliance assessments and setting emission limit values.

Combustion related processes

Download the Large combustion plant BAT conclusions from The European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau (EIPPCB)

Download the Waste incineration BAT conclusions from The European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau (EIPPCB)

Mineral processes

Download the Glass production BAT conclusions from the European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau (EIPPCB)

Download the Cement and lime manufacture BAT conclusions from the European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau (EIPPCB)

Chemical Processes (including refining)

Download Speciality organic chemicals: additional guidance from Gov.uk

Download Inorganic chemicals: additional guidance from Gov.uk

Download the Large volume organic chemicals BAT conclusions from the European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau (EIPPCB)

Download the Refining of mineral oil and gas BAT conclusions from the European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau (EIPPCB)

Download Waste water and waste gas treatment (in the chemical industries) BAT conclusions from the European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau (EIPPCB)

Metallurgical processes

Download Non-ferrous metal processes BAT conclusions from the European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau (EIPPCB)

Download Iron and steel production BAT conclusions from the European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau (EIPPCB)

Download Ferrous metal processing: additional guidance from Gov.uk

Download Surface treatment of metals and plastics using electrolysis and/or chemical processes: additional guidance from Gov.uk

Food and drink

Download the Dairy processing BAT conclusions from the European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau (EIPPCB)

Download Red meat processing: additional guidance from Gov.uk

Download Poultry processing: additional guidance from Gov.uk

Paper and Pulp and related installations

Download the Paper and pulp production BAT conclusions from the European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau (EIPPCB)

Download the Wood panel production BAT conclusions from the European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau (EIPPCB)

EU BAT review process

The EIPPCB coordinate the EU BAT process. Each sector has four statuses:

Published – where the BAT conclusions have been published
Adopted – where the reference document has been formally adopted but crucially no BAT Conclusions have been developed
Review started – the BAT review process has started but not concluded that also includes the publication of a final draft for that sectors BAT positions
Final draft – the final draft of the BAT documents is available.

After 1/1/2021 and as the UK moves out of the transition period, the UK will replace the EU BAT process with its own approach. Currently the UK is developing proposals for its own version of BAT for the UK.

Once the UK BAT process is in place, we will use the published UK BAT conclusions to replace the remaining ‘How to comply additional guidance’ documents.

For those sectors that are currently in the EU BAT review process but will not be published by 1/1/2021, we will adopt the UK BAT conclusions which in turn may use available information on BAT, including that published by the EU, as the basis for developing any UK guidance.

The EU BAT conclusion published before 1/1/2021 will remain in use until the UK Review BAT and publishes its own UK BAT Conclusions.

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