Part B Definition

For the purpose of these guidelines, ‘inspection’ means all activities undertaken by a competent authority or on its behalf in order to ensure compliance by F1mining waste facilities with the conditions of the permit that they have to obtain. These activities may include in particular:

• assessing relevant environmental and safety issues and the risks presented by the waste facilities;

• carrying out site visits to check premises, site conditions, relevant equipment, including whether it is adequately maintained, relevant documents and electronic data, internal measures and systems and operating processes;

• interviewing staff working at the waste facility;

• reinforcing operators’ knowledge of the relevant legal requirements and the environmental impacts of the activities of the operators;

• taking samples;

• using earth observation techniques and other forms of remote surveillance, including those involving in situ sensors, where appropriate;

• verifying operators’ self-monitoring;

• checking documents and electronic data, including operator’s reports, other than by means of site visits;

• checking operators’ internal measures and systems and operating processes other than by means of site visits;

• checking financial guarantees or equivalent;

• recording factual information on non-compliance;

• identifying the reasons for detected non-compliance and the possible types of impacts of such non-compliance on the environment and human health;

• describing detected non-compliance, in particular the circumstances (including the persons) which led to non-compliance, in order to identify, as far as possible, what actions are needed to ensure compliance and enable them, including by cooperating and sharing inspection findings with other relevant competent authorities.

Inspections, including site visits, may be routine, i.e. carried out as part of a regular set of activities, and non-routine, i.e. carried out in response to serious complaints or for the investigation of serious accidents, incidents and other occurrences of non-compliance.