The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Regulations 2012

• (b) to surrender (or to surrender on time) allowances, contrary to regulation 12A(4).

• (2) The civil penalty is the sterling equivalent of 20 Euros for each allowance that the person failed to transfer or surrender.

Failure to surrender allowances

Exceeding an emissions target for an excluded installation

Failure to pay a penalty for exceeding an emissions target for an Article 27 installation

Under-reporting of emissions from an excluded installation

Failure to notify when an excluded installation has had a significant capacity reduction or partial cessation of regulated activities

Failure to notify when the operator of an excluded installation has suspended the carrying out of regulated activities at the installation

Failure to surrender a permit

Failure to submit or resubmit an application for an emissions plan

Failure to notify the regulator if an emissions plan is not applied for

Failure to comply with a condition of an emissions plan

Failure to monitor aviation emissions

Failure to report aviation emissions

Failure to provide assistance and advice

Failure to comply with a direction relating to an operating ban

Failure to return allowances

Failure to comply with an enforcement notice

Failure to comply with an information notice

Providing false or misleading information

Publication of names of persons subject to penalties under regulation 54(1)

Excluded installations : Article 27 installations

Excluded installations: Article 27a installations

15A

• (1) An installation is an Article 27a installation for the duration of a particular allocation period, if, in relation to that period, the installation is excluded pursuant to Article 27a of the Directive, unless a notice has been given to the operator under paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 5A (in which case the installation ceases to be an Article 27a installation as from the date specified in the notice).

• (2) An installation's status as an Article 27a installation expires at the end of the particular allocation period in relation to which it is excluded.

• (3) Schedule 5A makes further provision about Article 27a installations.

Exceeding an emissions target for an Article 27 installation

Under-reporting of emissions from an Article 27 installation

Failure to notify when an Article 27 installation ceases to meet the criteria for being Article 27

Exceeding the maximum amount for an Article 27a installation

58ZA

• (1) The operator of an Article 27a installation is liable to the civil penalty in sub-paragraph (2) where in any scheme year the installation exceeds the maximum amount.

• (2) The civil penalty is (A – B) x C, where—

Carrying out regulated activity without the necessary permit

58ZB

• (1) Where the regulator is satisfied that the operator of an Article 27a installation has—

• (a) exceeded the maximum amount in any scheme year; and

• (b) failed to notify the regulator under paragraph 4(1) of Schedule 5A,

the operator of the installation (“P”) is subject to the civil penalty in paragraph (2) in respect of any penalty year.

• (2) Subject to paragraph (3), the civil penalty is A + (B x C), where— A is the estimated amount of the costs avoided by P in any penalty year as a result of carrying out a regulated activity without the necessary permit; B is the estimated amount of reportable emissions from the installation in the period during which a regulated activity was carried out without the necessary permit; C is the carbon price for that penalty year.

• (3) In imposing the penalty under paragraph (2), the regulator may increase the amount determined under that sub-paragraph by a percentage designed to ensure that the penalty exceeds the amount of any economic benefit that P has obtained as a result of carrying out a regulated activity without the necessary permit.

• (4) The authority must exercise powers under regulation 40 of the Northern Ireland Regulations to give the regulator directions as to—

• (a) the estimation by the regulator of A and B in paragraph (2); and

• (b) the exercise of the regulator's powers under paragraph (3).

• (5) In this regulation—

• (a) “maximum amount” has the meaning given in paragraph 1(a) of Schedule 5A;

• (b) “necessary permit” means the Article 27 installation emissions permit or the greenhouse gas emissions permit which P would have been required to comply with under paragraph 5(3) or (4) of Schedule 5A if P had not failed to notify the regulator under paragraph 4(1) of that Schedule;

• (c) “penalty year” means any scheme year during which P would have been required to comply with the conditions of the necessary permit, if P had not failed to notify the regulator under paragraph 4(1) of Schedule 5A.

Failure to notify when an excluded installation has had a significant capacity reduction or partial cessation of regulated activities

Failure to notify when the operator of an excluded installation has suspended the carrying out of regulated activities at the installation

Failure to surrender a permit

Failure to submit or resubmit an application for an emissions plan

Failure to notify the regulator if an emissions plan is not applied for

Failure to comply with a condition of an emissions plan

Failure to monitor aviation emissions

Failure to report aviation emissions

Failure to provide assistance and advice

Failure to comply with a direction relating to an operating ban

Failure to return allowances

Failure to comply with an enforcement notice

Failure to comply with an information notice

Providing false or misleading information

Publication of names of persons subject to penalties under regulation 54(1)

Content of an Article 27 installation emissions permit

Termination of an Article 27 installation emissions permit

SCHEDULE 5A

Interpretation

1

In this Schedule—

• (a) “maximum amount” means an amount of less than 2,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, disregarding emissions from biomass;

• (b) “the operator's preferred alternative permit” has the meaning given in paragraph 3(1).

Duty to monitor emissions

2

• (1) The operator of an Article 27a installation must monitor the installation's emissions of carbon dioxide equivalent in accordance with an appropriate monitoring plan.

• (2) An appropriate monitoring plan for the first allocation period is a monitoring plan that—

• (a) was approved in relation to the installation in accordance with Articles 11 to 13 of the Monitoring and Reporting Regulation, for the purposes of the scheme year immediately before the first allocation period; or

• (b) is otherwise approved by the regulator, following an application made by the operator, as a plan that is capable of monitoring whether the installation has exceeded the maximum amount in any scheme year.

• (3) An appropriate monitoring plan for the second allocation period is a monitoring plan that—

• (a) was approved in relation to the installation in accordance with Articles 11 to 13 of the Monitoring and Reporting Regulation, for the purposes of the scheme year immediately before the first allocation period;

• (b) was approved in relation to the installation in accordance with Article 11 to 13 of the Monitoring and Reporting Regulation 2018, for the purposes of the scheme year immediately before the second allocation period; or

• (c) is otherwise approved by the regulator, following an application made by the operator, as a plan that is capable of monitoring whether the installation has exceeded the maximum amount in any scheme year.

The operator's preferred alternative permit

3

• (1) The operator of an Article 27a installation may notify the regulator that, if the installation exceeds the maximum amount in any scheme year, the operator prefers to comply with the conditions of an Article 27 installation emissions permit or, alternatively, a greenhouse gas emissions permit in respect of the installation (“the operator's preferred alternative permit”).

• (2) A notice under sub-paragraph (1) must be received by the regulator by 31st August 2024, in relation to the second allocation period.

Duty to notify if emissions exceed maximum amount during an allocation period

4

• (1) The operator of an Article 27a installation must notify the regulator by the relevant date if the reportable emissions from the installation in any scheme year exceed the maximum amount.

• (2) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (1), the relevant date is 31st March in the year following the scheme year in question.

Termination of Article 27a status

5

• (1) Where the regulator is satisfied that an Article 27a installation has exceeded the maximum amount in any scheme year, the regulator must, as soon as is reasonably practicable, give a notice to the operator.

• (2) A notice that is given pursuant to sub-paragraph (1) must state that, from the beginning of the scheme year following the year in which the notice is given—

• (a) the installation will not be treated as an Article 27a installation; and

• (b) the operator will be required to comply with the conditions of the operator's preferred alternative permit for the remainder of the allocation period during which the notice is given.

• (3) Where the regulator has not received notification of the operator’s preferred alternative permit in accordance with paragraph 3, the notice under sub-paragraph (1) must state that, from the beginning of the scheme year following the year in which the notice is given, until the end of the allocation period during which the notice is given, the operator will be required to comply with the conditions of a greenhouse gas emissions permit in respect of the installation.

• (4) The operator of an Article 27a installation who has received a notice pursuant to sub-paragraph (1) may apply for—

• (a) a greenhouse gas emissions permit, under regulation 10(1); or

• (b) an Article 27 installation emissions permit, under regulation 10(2),

whichever is stated in the notice given pursuant to sub-paragraph (2)(b) or sub-paragraph (3).