Environment Agency charges consultation: radioactive substances regulation (non-nuclear sites)

Overview

We are the Environment Agency. We carry out a wide range of regulatory services and we charge our customers for the regulatory work we do. We make sure our charges are fair and transparent and that they reflect the cost of the service we provide.

We are proposing to increase our charges for permitting and inspection of radioactive substances at non-nuclear sites in England. This is a statutory duty placed on the Environment Agency under Schedule 23 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

Radioactive substances are widely used by hospitals, universities and industry. For example, they use radioactive substances:

• to diagnose and treat patients
• for research and teaching
• in manufacturing and engineering processes

There are around 1,200 permitted non-nuclear sites which keep and use radioactive materials and dispose of radioactive waste to the environment.

What we are consulting on

As a public body, we must follow government guidance on managing public money. This means we must recover the full cost of the services we provide; customers will only pay for the regulatory service they receive. 

We have reviewed our service for regulating radioactive substances at non-nuclear sites under The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 and we are consulting on our proposal to increase charges.

The charges we are consulting on were last reviewed in 2018. Since then, compound inflation has been around 30 percent and staff salaries have risen significantly as a result of adding a ‘market forces factor’ to reflect the specialist skills required to carry out work in this sector.

The work also includes our role as the counter terrorism security regulator of high-activity sealed radioactive sources in England. In 2024, the National Counter Terrorism Security Office issued new duties requiring us to oversee security improvements at sites covered by these arrangements. This is a 5-year programme which requires variations to permits as well as inspections to monitor the improvements.

These costs have been partially offset by our cost-of-service review implemented in August 2025, which increased these charges by 7.5 percent to cover some staff cost increases, and process efficiencies that have been enabled by investment in IT.

Our charges recover the costs of our services for permitting and inspection of non-nuclear sites using radioactive substances. Where possible, we have made efficiencies to sustain our regulatory service. However, the cost to undertake the necessary permitting and regulatory activities is greater than the fees we are currently charging.

When we reviewed these charges we considered:

• changes in the cost of delivering our services
• inflationary pressures
• National Counter Terrorism Security Office requirements to oversee security improvements at through permitting and inspections

For radioactive substances regulation (non-nuclear sites) we propose that the updated charges apply from 1 April 2026. Our proposed charges are designed to be fair to our customers and allow us to deliver an efficient and effective service by recovering the true costs of our permitting and regulatory work.

To help you understand what we include when we develop or review a charge, we have provided guidance on how the Environment Agency calculates its charges on GOV.UK.

Why your views matter

We would like you to hear from you so we can understand your views on the impacts and benefits of our proposed charges for regulating radioactive substances at non-nuclear sites. 

How to respond

This consultation runs for 6 weeks, from 6 January 2026 until midnight on 17 February 2026. You can view the consultation document and supporting documents by clicking on the relevant link in the 'related' section at the end of this page. We will consider all responses received by the closing date before finalising our proposals to submit for approval by government.

To make your response to this consultation, click on the 'click here' link in the 'Online consultation' box on this page.

Citizen Space, provides an easy and efficient way for you to respond online. It allows us to:

• gather all responses in one place
• summarise responses quickly and accurately
• reduce the cost of the consultation

Publishing our consultation response 

We aim to publish our response on GOV.UK within 12 weeks of this consultation closing and before we implement any changes. It will include a summary of the comments and queries we receive.  When we publish our response, a link will be added to this page.

Please click on the 'online consultation' link below to answer the consultation questions.