Responsibilities for land contamination

You could be responsible for land contamination, for example, if you:

• develop land that is contaminated
• cause environmental damage to land
• cause contamination in breach of your pollution prevention and control (PPC) permit.

What you must do

Land development responsibilities

You could be required to clean up land contamination before you are allowed to carry out development. Your local council can impose planning conditions that require you to assess the risk of contamination and clean up the land, known as remediation, to make the site suitable for the proposed use.

Environmental damage responsibilities

You could be responsible for land contamination if it is classed as environmental damage and was caused on or after:

• 24 July 2009 in Northern Ireland
• 24 June 2009 in Scotland.

See the page in this guideline on environmental damage caused by land contamination.

Permit responsibilities

You could also be responsible for land contamination if it is caused by you breaching your PPC permit.

Further information

• Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA): Contaminated land
• Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA): Contaminated land
• Scottish Government: Contaminated land statutory guidance
• HMRC: Tax breaks for remediation of land contamination