Explanatory note

These Regulations amend the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018 (the “2018 Regulations”) to bring water, waste and industrial emissions activities into the framework for authorisation of environmental activities provided by the 2018 Regulations, which currently only apply to radioactive substances activities in Scotland.

As provided for in schedule 21, these Regulations revoke much of the current legislation underpinning the regulation of these environmental activities in Scotland, including the Landfill (Scotland) Regulations 2003, the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011, the Waste Management Licensing (Scotland) Regulations 2011, and the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2012, and provide for a new regulatory framework for these activities within the 2018 Regulations.

Regulation 1(2) in Part 1 provides for coming into force dates of the provisions, subject to the transitional and savings provisions in schedule 23. Activities which are currently regulated under the existing regimes by way of licence, permit or registration will generally be deemed to be authorised under the 2018 Regulations as amended by these Regulations. There is specific provision for activities which are exempt from the requirement to hold an authorisation under the Waste Management Licensing (Scotland) Regulations 2011, requiring in most cases that the activity be authorised under the 2018 Regulations by 1 April 2026. Specific provision is also made for activities involving the recovery of waste by application to land to enable applications for authorisation under the 2018 Regulations from 1 June 2025, and to enable a later transition for authorisations for the transportation of waste under the current regime.

Part 2 makes a number of amendments to the 2018 Regulations so as to bring these new activities within the regulatory framework provided by the 2018 Regulations. This includes amendments to definitions, including the definitions of regulated activities so as to include the new activities and changes to the provisions in respect of information and publicity in Part 8 of the 2018 Regulations so as to provide for pre-application public consultation in certain cases, and to modify the call-in procedure in Part 2 of schedule 1 of the 2018 Regulations. In addition, a number of technical amendments are made to the 2018 Regulations so as to ensure the better functioning of those Regulations and to correct minor technical errors in schedule 8 (radioactive substances activities).

Part 2 also amends schedule 9 (general binding rules) of the 2018 Regulations so as to provide for general binding rules in relation to certain water, waste, and emissions activities. Part 2 also provides new technical schedules to be inserted into the 2018 Regulations so as to define the scope of the new regulated activities as well as subsets of those activities, and to provide for specific technical requirements that apply to applications and authorisations for those activities. Schedules 1 to 19 of these Regulations provide for new technical schedules for water activities, waste management activities, industrial emissions activities, and other emissions activities which are inserted into the 2018 Regulations. As a subset of waste activities, new technical schedules (in schedules 3 to 9 of these Regulations) are provided in relation to hazardous waste activities, landfill activities, management of waste vehicles, management of waste electrical and electronic equipment, management of waste batteries and recovery of waste by application to land for the purpose of soil improvement. Subsets of industrial emissions activities are inserted into the 2018 Regulations by schedules 10 to 15 of these Regulations dealing with schedule 20 emissions activities, operating a large combustion plant, incineration and co-incineration of waste, organic solvents emissions activities, and titanium dioxide activities. Schedule 16 of these Regulations inserts a new schedule into the 2018 Regulations to provide for energy efficiency requirements for certain industrial emissions activities. Schedules 18 and 19 of these Regulations insert new technical schedules into the 2018 Regulations in relation to operating a medium combustion plant and petrol vapour recovery activities as subsets of “other emissions activities”.

Part 3 provides for amendments to the Water Environment (River Basin Management Planning: Further Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2013 which are necessary in consequence of these Regulations and for a new schedule to be inserted into those Regulations which provides for an indicative list of the main pollutants.

Part 4 provides for repeals and revocations, consequential modifications and transitional and savings provisions, the specifics of which are provided for in schedules 21, 22 and 23.

A Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared and placed in the Environmental Quality Division, Directorate for Environment and Forestry, Victoria Quay, Edinburgh EH6 6QQ and is available online at legislation.gov.uk.