Environmental guidance for your business in Northern Ireland & Scotland

Does your education establishment require a PPC permit?

You 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 the education sector include:

	Permit Categories
Listed activity	Northern Ireland	Scotland
operating a boiler or furnace with a thermal input rating of 50 megawatts or more	Part A	Part A
operating more than one boiler or furnace on a site with a combined thermal input rating of 50 megawatts or more	Part A	Part A
appliances burning waste oil, recovered oil or any fuel manufactured from waste	Part A	Part A
operating a new boiler or furnace with a thermal rating greater than 1 megawatt but less than 20 megawatts (From 20/12/2018)		Part B
operating a boiler or furnace with a thermal rating greater than 20 megawatts but less than 50 megawatts	Part C	Part B
operating more than one boiler or furnace on a site with a combined thermal input rating greater than 20 megawatts but less than 50 megawatts	Part C	Part B
appliances burning waste excluded from the waste incineration directive with a rated thermal input of 0.4 to 3 megawatts	Part C	Part B

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