Environmental guidance for your business in Northern Ireland & Scotland

Does your chemical manufacturing business need a PPC permit?

Your business may require a pollution prevention and control (PPC) permit from your environmental regulator or local council. For example, you will need a permit if your business has a production capacity above a certain level or if you use certain hazardous substances.

If your business is an installation or mobile plant you will need a pollution prevention and control (PPC) permit from your environmental regulator.

An installation is a stationary technical unit, such as a self-contained building, permanent structure or fixed plant, used for listed activities.

A mobile plant is plant that can be moved and is used for listed activities.

Listed activities

These are industrial, waste or intensive farming activities that have an impact on the environment and are listed in the PPC regulations. They are split into categories:

Part A, B and C in Northern Ireland
Part A and B in Scotland

Listed activities that might be carried out by chemical businesses include:

	Permit Categories
Listed activity	Northern Ireland	Scotland
producing organic chemicals such as hydrocarbons, plastic materials and di-isocyanates	Part A	Part A
producing inorganic chemicals including gases, such as ammonia, hydroxide bases, metal oxides, halogens and acids, such as nitric acid	Part A	Part A
producing chemical fertilisers, and pesticides and biocides	Part A	Part A
producing and formulating pharmaceutical products using a chemical or biological process	Part A	Part A
producing explosives.	Part A	Part A

using some organic chemicals such as toluene di-isocyanate or methane di-isocyanate	Part B	Part B
bulk storage of chemicals	Part B	Part B
producing and processing coating preparations, varnishes, inks and adhesives using 100 tonnes or more of organic solvent per year	Part C	Part B
producing, formulating and finishing pharmaceutical products using 50 tonnes or more of organic solvent per year	Part C	Part B

Note: This is not a complete list of PPC listed activities for the chemical sector.

What you must do

If your installation or mobile plant carries out listed activities you will need a permit from your environmental regulator.

Permits and regulators for listed activities

Activity category	Northern Ireland	Scotland
Part A	PPC permit regulated by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA)	PPC permit regulated by SEPA
Part B	PPC permit regulated the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA)	PPC permit regulated by SEPA
Part C	PPC permit regulated by local council	N/A

Contact your environmental regulator

You should contact your environmental regulator or local council for further information about listed activities. NetRegs does not provide detailed guidance on Part A activities.

If you are unsure whether you are affected by PPC, contact your environmental regulator or local council.

Contact your environmental regulator

Contact your local council

How to apply for a permit

NIEA: Apply online

SEPA: Application forms

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Permits

NIEA - Apply online

SEPA - Application forms