Consultation on Amendments to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 as applied to Groundwater Activities and related Surface Water Discharge Activities

Overview

We plan to make some changes to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 as they apply to groundwater activities and some related surface water discharge activities. This consultation seeks your views on the proposed changes.

Why your views matter

Defra is proposing to make nine amendments to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 as they apply to groundwater activities and some related surface water discharge activities.

These amendments aim to address three policy objectives:

1. To provide an improved hierarchy of regulatory controls for groundwater activities
2. To provide controls for a greater range of potential pollutants
3. To improve existing control measures for protecting groundwater from site-based activities 

Defra would like to invite views of all stakeholders and interested parties on the proposed amendments.

You can submit your views through this survey, or via email or post by sending your response to EPRamendments2021@defra.gov.uk or,

Consultation on Amendments to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 
Consultation Coordinator  
2nd Floor  
Foss House  
Kings Pool  
1-2 Peasholme Green 
York 
YO17 PX16 

 If responding via email or post, please state:  

• Your name  
• Your email address  
• Your organisation (if applicable) 
• The consultation title 

Responses must be submitted by Wednesday 22 December 2021. Should you have any issues or questions, please do get in touch via the above email address.

To complete the consultation please follow the link to the online survey below. We strongly recommend that you view the related documents before starting the consultation questions. This includes accompanying documents Annex B and Annex C, which some of the consultation questions relate to directly.

Thank you for taking the time to provide your views on these proposals.

What happens next

Members of the public may ask for a copy of the responses under the Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation. If you do not want your response – including your name, contact details and any other personal information – to be publicly available, please say so clearly in writing when you send your response to the consultation. Please note, if your computer automatically includes a confidentiality disclaimer this will not count as a confidentiality request. Please explain why you need to keep the details confidential. We will take your responses into account if someone asks for this information under the FOI legislation. However, because of the law, we cannot promise that we will always be able to keep those details confidential.

We will summarise all responses once the consultation window is complete. This summary will include a list of names of organisations that respond but not people’s personal names, addresses or other contact details