The Pollution Prevention and Control (Industrial Emissions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2013

Made: 5th June 2013

Coming into operation in accordance with regulation 1

In accordance with Article 4(4) of that Order, the Department of the Environment has consulted district councils and such bodies or persons appearing to it to be representative of the interests of district councils as it considers appropriate, such bodies or persons appearing to it to be representative of the interests of industry, agriculture and business as it considers appropriate and such other bodies or persons as it considers appropriate.

PART 1 — GENERAL

Citation and commencement

1

These Regulations may be cited as the Pollution Prevention and Control (Industrial Emissions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2013 and shall, subject to Schedules 3 and 17, come into operation on 20th June 2013.

Interpretation: general

2

• (1) In these Regulations—

• “the 2003 Landfill Regulations” means the Landfill Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003[^f00002];

• “baseline report” means, in relation to any particular site, all relevant information on the state of soil and groundwater contamination by relevant hazardous substances and shall include in particular all relevant—information on the existing use of the site;information on past uses of the site; andsoil and groundwater measurements based on—previously existing information; andnew information,if using that information provides an accurate description of the state of the site at the time of the report;

• “change in operation” means, in relation to an installation or mobile plant, a change in the nature or functioning or an extension of the installation or mobile plant which may have consequences for the environment;

• “chief inspector” means the inspector constituted to be the chief inspector under regulation 8(3);

• “coating” means any preparation, including all the organic solvents or preparations containing organic solvents necessary for its proper application, which is used to provide a film with decorative, protective or other functional effect on a surface;

• “cogeneration” means the simultaneous generation in one process of thermal energy and electrical or mechanical energy;

• “combustion plant” means any technical apparatus in which fuels are oxidised in order to use the heat thus generated;

• ...

• “controlled waste” has the same meaning as in the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997;

• “cost-benefit analysis” means a cost-benefit analysis carried out in accordance with Part 2 of Annex IX of the Energy Efficiency Directive;

• “the Department” means the Department of the Environment;

• “the Directive” means Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste as last amended by Directive (EU) 2018/851;

• “directly associated activity” means—in relation to an activity carried out in a stationary technical unit and falling within any description in sections 1.1 to 6.11 of Part 1 of Schedule 1, any directly associated activity which has a technical connection with the activity carried out in the stationary technical unit and which could have an effect on pollution; andin relation to a SED activity, any directly associated activity which has a technical connection with the SED activity carried out on the same site and which could have an effect on any discharge of volatile organic compounds into the environment;

• “draft determination” means the proposed decision made by the enforcing authority in relation to an application for, a permit or a permit variation, for a Part A installation or Part A mobile plant. The proposed decision must be advertised and interested parties may make representations which are then considered by the enforcing authority before it makes its final determination, in line with public participation principles.

• “emission” means—in relation to Part A installations, the direct or indirect release of substances, vibrations, heat or noise from individual or diffuse sources in the installation into the air, water or land;in relation to Part B installations, the direct release of substances or heat from individual or diffuse sources in the installation into the air;in relation to Part C installations, the direct release of substances or heat from individual or diffuse sources in the installation into the air;in relation to Part A mobile plant, the direct or indirect release of substances, vibrations, heat or noise from the mobile plant into the air, water or land;in relation to Part B mobile plant, the direct release of substances or heat from the mobile plant into the air;in relation to Part C mobile plant, the direct release of substances or heat from the mobile plant into the air;

• “emission limit value” means the mass, expressed in terms of specific parameters, concentration or level of an emission, which may not be exceeded during one or more periods of time;

• “Energy Efficiency Directive” means Directive 2012/27/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on energy efficiency amending Directives 2009/125/EC and 2010/30/EU and repealing Directives 2004/8/EC and 2006/32/EC[^f00003];

• “enforcement notice” has the meaning given by regulation 27(1);

• “enforcing authority” means, in relation to the exercise of functions under these Regulations, the authority, being either the chief inspector or district council, by whom, under regulation 7, those functions are exercisable;

• “environmental inspection” means all actions, including site visits, monitoring of emissions and checks of internal reports and follow-up documents, verification of self-monitoring, checking of the techniques used and adequacy of the environmental management of the installation or mobile plant, undertaken by or on behalf of the competent authority to check and promote compliance of operations with their permit conditions and, where necessary, to monitor their environmental impact;

• “environmental quality standard” means the set of requirements which must be fulfilled at a given time by a given environment or particular part thereof, as set out in EU law;

• “existing medium combustion plant” means a combustion plant put into operation before 20th December 2018 or for which a permit was granted before 19th December 2017 provided that the plant is put into operation no later than 20th December 2018;

• “fibre-based composite material” means packaging material which is made of paperboard or paper fibres, with a layer of plastic, and which may also have layers of other materials, to form a single unit that cannot be separated by hand;

• “food waste” means controlled waste that was at any time food intended for human consumption (even if of no nutritional value), and includes biodegradable waste produced as a consequence of the processing or preparation of food, but does not include drink;

• “fuel” means any solid, liquid or gaseous combustible material;

• “gas turbine” means any rotating machine which converts thermal energy into mechanical work, consisting mainly of a compressor, a thermal device in which fuel is oxidised in order to heat the working fluid, and a turbine;

• “groundwater” means groundwater as defined in point 2 of Article 2 of Directive 2000/60/EC[^f00003] of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for community action in the field of water policy;

• “hazardous substances” means substances or mixtures as defined in Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008[^f00004] of the European Parliament and of the Council on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures;

• “hazardous waste” means hazardous waste as defined in point 2 of Article 3 of the Directive ;

• “high-efficiency cogeneration” means cogeneration meeting the criteria laid down in Annex II of the Energy Efficiency Directive;

• “IED” means Directive 2010/75/EU[^f00006] of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 on industrial emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control) (Recast);

• “inspector” means a person appointed under regulation 8(1) or (5);

• “installation” means a stationary technical unit within which one or more activities listed in Part 1 of Schedule 1 are carried out, and any other directly associated activities on the same site which have a technical connection with the activities listed in that Part and which could have an effect on emissions and pollution;

• “landfill” means a landfill to which the 2003 Landfill Regulations apply;

• “materials facility” means––a facility or part of a facility where waste material is received in order to-–separate it into specified output material; orconsolidate it into bulk quantities (whether as a first point of consolidation for such waste or following the first consolidation of bulk quantities transferred from other suppliers);for the purpose of selling it, or transferring it to other facilities or persons to enable that material to be prepared for re-use or recycling;any reference to a “materials facility” excludes a facility or part of a facility––at which all the waste material received during a reporting period is attributable exclusively to a single supplier, unless the waste material so received is separated into specified output material at that facility;that is provided pursuant to arrangements made under section 25(1)(b) of the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997;that undertakes the processing or sorting of waste electrical and electronic equipment, waste batteries or accumulators;

• “Materials Facilities Code” means the Code of Practice on Sampling and Reporting at Materials Facilities issued by the Department on 31st January 2025;

• “MCPD” means the “Medium Combustion Plant Directive” which is Directive 2015/2193/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of the 25 November 2015 on the limitation of emissions of certain pollutants into the air from medium combustion plants[^f00004];

• “medium combustion plant” means a combustion plant with a rated thermal input equal to or greater than 1 megawatt and less than 50 megawatts irrespective of the type of fuel they use and includes any combination of combustion plants referred to in article 2(2) or article 4 of the MCPD, provided that—it does not fall within Article 2(3) or (4) of the MCPD;it is not installed on an offshore platform situated on, above or below those parts of the territorial sea adjacent to Northern Ireland;

• “mixture” means a mixture or solution composed of two or more substances;

• “mobile medium combustion plant” means a medium combustion plant which is designed to move or be moved whether on roads or other land;

• “mobile plant” means plant which is designed to move or to be moved whether on roads or otherwise and which is used to carry out one or more activities listed in sections 1.1 to 6.11 of Part 1 of Schedule 1;

• “net rated thermal input” means the rate at which fuel can be burned at the maximum continuous rating of the appliance multiplied by the net calorific value of the fuel and expressed as megawatts;

• “new medium combustion plant” means a medium combustion plant which is not an existing medium combustion plant;

• “off-site condition” has the meaning given by regulation 13(7);

• “organic compound” means any compound containing at least the element carbon and one or more of hydrogen, halogens, oxygen, sulphur, phosphorus, silicon or nitrogen, with the exception of carbon oxides, inorganic carbonates and bicarbonates;

• “organic solvent” means any volatile organic compound which is used for any of the following—alone or in combination with other agents, and without undergoing a chemical change, to dissolve raw materials, products or waste materials;as a cleaning agent to dissolve contaminants;as a dissolver;as a dispersion medium;as a viscosity adjuster;as a surface tension adjuster;as a plasticiser; oras a preservative;

• “operator”, subject to paragraph (2), means any natural or legal person who operates or controls in whole or in part the installation or mobile plant;

• “Part A installation”, “Part B installation” and “Part C installation” shall be interpreted in accordance with Part 3 of Schedule 1;

• “Part A mobile plant”, “Part B mobile plant” and “Part C mobile plant” shall be interpreted in accordance with Part 3 of Schedule 1;

• “permit” means a written authorisation granted under regulation 10 to operate all or part of an installation or mobile plant;

• “Planning Appeals Commission” means the Planning Appeals Commission established under Article 110 of the Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1991[^f00007];

• “pollution” means the direct or indirect introduction, as a result of human activity, of substances, vibrations, heat or noise into air, water or land which may be harmful to human health or the quality of the environment, result in damage to material property or impair or interfere with amenities and other legitimate uses of the environment;

• “poultry” means poultry as defined in point 1 of Article 2 of Council Directive 2009/158/EC of 30 November 2009 on animal health conditions governing intra-Community trade in, and imports from third countries of, poultry and hatching eggs as last amended by Commission Implementing Decision 2011/879/EU;

• “the public” means one or more natural or legal persons and, in accordance with national law or practice, their associations, organisations or groups;

• “the public concerned” means the public affected or likely to be affected by, or having an interest in, the taking of a decision on the granting or the updating of a permit or of permit conditions; for the purposes of this definition, non-governmental organisations promoting environmental protection and meeting any requirements under national law shall be deemed to have an interest;

• “rated thermal input” means the rate at which fuel can be burned at the maximum continuous rating of the appliance multiplied by the gross calorific value of the fuel and expressed as megawatts;

• “recovery” means any operation the principal result of which is the waste serving a useful purpose by replacing other materials which would otherwise have been used to fulfil a particular function, or waste being prepared to fulfil that function, in the plant or in the wider economy. Annex II to the Directive , sets out a non-exhaustive list of recovery operations;

• “reduction scheme” means a reduction scheme which complies with Part 5 of Annex VII of the IED;

• “revocation notice” has the meaning given by regulation 24(1);

• “SED activity” means any activity falling within section 7 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 and any other activity listed in Schedule 1 to which Chapter V of the IED applies;

• “SED installation” means—a stationary technical unit where one or more SED activities are carried out; andany other location on the same site where any other directly associated activities are carried out;

• “separately collected food waste” means food waste which is presented for collection, and collected in a manner that ensures that food waste is kept separate from other waste;

• “site report” means a report describing the condition of the site of the installation or mobile plant containing the information specified in Schedule 4.

• “small SED installation” means a SED installation which falls within the lower threshold band of items 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 13, 16 or 17 of Part 2 of Annex VII of the IED or, for the other activities of Part 2 of Annex VII, which have a solvent consumption of less than 10 tonnes/year;

• “soil” means the top layer of the Earth’s crust, composed of mineral particles, organic matter, water, air and living organisms, situated between the bedrock and the surface;

• “specified generator” has the meaning given in paragraph 2 of Schedule 9B.

• “specified waste management activity” means any one of the following activities—the disposal of waste in a landfill, whether or not the disposal falls within section 5.2 of Part 1 of Schedule 1;the disposal or recovery of hazardous waste falling within section 5.3 of that Part of that Schedule;the disposal or recovery of non-hazardous waste falling within section 5.4 of that Part of that Schedule;the temporary storage of waste falling within section 5.5 of that Part of that Schedule;the underground storage of waste falling within section 5.5 of that Part of that Schedule;

• “specified output material” means a batch of material (whether or not waste) that is—produced from a separating process for waste material; andmade up of one or more of the following kinds of material—glass;metal;paper;card;plastic;fibre-based composite material;

• “stack” means a structure containing one or more flues providing a passage for waste gases in order to discharge them into the air;

• “substance” means any chemical element and its compounds, with the exception of the following substances—radioactive substances as defined in Article 1 of Council Directive 96/29/Euratom[^f00009] of 13 May 1996 laying down basic safety standards for the protection of the health of workers and the general public against the dangers arising from ionising radiation;genetically modified micro-organisms as defined in Article 2(b) of Directive 2009/41/EC[^f00010] of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 on the contained use of genetically modified micro-organisms;genetically modified organisms as defined in Article 2(2) of Directive 2001/18/EC[^f00011] of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 March 2001 on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms;