The Environmental Permitting regime operates under the “Polluter Pays” principle and the cost of regulating a permitted installation is covered by an annual subsistence charge paid to the Local Authority by the operator.
The fees are determined each year by the Welsh Assembly Government (after a period of consultation) and published on its web site. See the link to the Welsh Assembly Government website below.
Each year, the Local Authority is required to use a risk assessment method (produced by the Welsh Assembly Government) to determine the level of regulatory effort (High, Medium or Low) assigned to each process for the forthcoming year.
The risk rating assigned to each process determines the amount of subsistence charge it will be required to pay and the likely number of inspections which will be made in the forthcoming year. By introducing such a method it was hoped that there would be a reduction in the regulatory burden for business (by targeting resources at those which pose most risk), incentives for improved environmental performance and improved consistency in regulation.
Risk assessment is divided into two parts:-
- Environmental Impact Appraisal (EIA), which concerns the potential environmental impacts of a process according to its type, level of upgrading to meet regulatory requirements, and its location, and
- Operator Performance Appraisal (OPA) which relates to how well the operator manages the potential environmental impact of the process.
Inspection programme
Inspections are required in order to ensure compliance with permit conditions and to ensure that there have been no changes to the permitted installation or mobile plant.
Inspections are required in order to ensure compliance with permit conditions and to ensure that there have been no changes to the permitted installation or mobile plant.
The Local Authority is required to develop an annual inspection program and this is based upon the risk assessment method. For standard permits, high risk would entail two full inspections per year; medium risk would consist of one full inspection and a check inspection, while low risk would consist of a single full inspection.
Certain installations are considered lower risk than the standard and although they are subject to a similar risk assessment method the fees and inspection frequencies are reduced. For small waste oil burners, dry cleaners, petrol stations and gas odorisers the frequency of inspection would be once every 3 years for the lowest risk category while vehicle refinishers and mobile plant would be once every 2 years.
In order to ensure best value, inspections of Petrol Stations on Anglesey are normally undertaken by the Petroleum Officer during the course of annual licensing inspections.
An inspection would normally entail:
- a review of appropriate documents before the inspection including previous reports, monitoring data and risk assessment
- site office based meeting including confirming the purpose of the inspection, identifying changes and any outstanding actions form previous inspections
- site walk-over
- review of relevant site records such as inspection or service records
- review of the risk assessment for the next 12 months
- identifying follow-up actions for both operator and Local Authority
- providing verbal feedback at the close of the meeting and following up with written confirmation in due course
Apart from Petrol Stations, routine inspections are normally arranged by prior appointment.