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.
Local planning authorities' responsibilities
Local planning authorities have responsibilities in relation to land affected by contamination. See guidance for local planning authorities on how to deal with this:
GOV.UK: Land affected by contamination
Further information
- Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA): Contaminated land
- For Northern Ireland, England and Wales: Environment Agency's Land Contamination: Risk Management (LCRM). Identifying, making decisions on, and taking appropriate action to deal with land contamination
- Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA): Development on Land Potentially Affected by Contamination
- Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA): Contaminated land
- Scottish Government: Contaminated land statutory guidance
- HMRC: Tax breaks for remediation of land contamination