Environmental guidance for your business in Northern Ireland & Scotland

Does your wood or timber business require 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 wood and timber businesses include:

	Permit Categories
Listed activity	Northern Ireland	Scotland
manufacturing wood particleboard, fibreboard, plywood or any other composite wood-based board	Part A	Part A
curing or chemically treating timber or wood products as part of a manufacturing process that uses: - treatments that contain pentachlorophenol and its compounds - grease removers and paint or varnish dissolvers that contain dichloromethane	Part A	Part A
manufacturing products by sawing, drilling, sanding, shaping, turning, planing, curing or chemically treating wood and the throughput is over: - 10,000 cubic metres per year at plants where you only saw wood - 1,000 cubic metres in any other case	Part C
treating timber with preservatives using 25 tonnes or more of organic solvent per year	Part C	Part B
applying any coating to wooden surfaces using 15 tonnes or more of organic solvent per year	Part C	Part B
producing laminated wood products using five tonnes or more of organic solvent per year	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: PPC Permits

SEPA: Application forms

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Permits

NIEA - Apply online

SEPA - Application forms