Explanatory note

These Regulations prescribe the particulars of the matters required by section 117(1) of the Water Act 1989 to be included in the registers to be maintained by the National Rivers Authority. Those matters include applications for discharge consents, consents relating to the removal of deposits and vegetation and to discharges and the conditions to which they are subject, and certificates of exemption. The Regulations also require the inclusion in the registers of the results of the analysis of samples of effluent and samples of water taken by the Authority in the exercise of their pollution control functions, and of information acquired by the Authority with respect to samples taken by other persons.

Section 117(2) of the Water Act 1989 requires the National Rivers Authority to secure that the contents of the registers to which these Regulations apply are available, at all reasonable times, for inspection by the public free of charge. It also requires the Authority to afford members of the public reasonable facilities for obtaining from the Authority, on payment of reasonable charges, copies of entries in any of the registers.