Before 1990, most of the legal measures used to control emissions to the environment from business premises dealt with either emissions to air or water. From 1990 onwards a system of integrated pollution control (IPC) was introduced. This applied to certain processes (known as prescribed processes), which were deemed to have the highest potential to pollute.
The idea of integrated pollution control was to regulate all the emissions from such processes in a co-ordinated way. One document known in this regulatory regime as an Authorisation, covered the process and one regulatory body was responsible for regulation. That body is now the Environment Agency.
In 1999, this system was further refined in line with the European Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (also see IPPC in the EEF Register of Environmental Legislation). The new system was extended to include other relevant issues and the regulatory side was complicated by the involvement for certain sites of local environmental health officers. The new system commenced in 2000 and the long phasing in period was completed in 2007.
A new system of Environmental Permitting was introduced by the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 in April 2008.