Standard Rules Consultation No 30 - Proposals for New Standard Rules Permits for Groundwater Activities

Overview

The Environment Agency is responsible for regulating “groundwater activities” as set out in Schedule 22 of the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016 (the EPR).  These can be defined as activities that take place on or below the ground surface with the potential to impact upon the quality of groundwater.

Groundwater activities require an environmental permit issued by the Environment Agency unless an exemption from permitting applies. In October 2023 the EPR was amended meaning that, as an alternative to only issuing “bespoke permits”, the Environment Agency can also choose to regulate groundwater activities using a “standard rules permit” approach.

The Environment Agency has now developed four proposed standard rules permits for some groundwater activities. The purpose of this consultation is to introduce these permits, which are intended to cover certain cemetery developments, and some closed-loop ground source heating and cooling (CL-GSHC) systems.

This consultation is to seek your views on the proposed new standard rules for:

• new cemetery developments proposing moderate burial rates
• new cemetery developments proposing burials into unweathered bedrock
• new natural burials grounds
• new closed-loop ground source heating and cooling systems in certain settings

We will also seek your views on the generic risk assessments associated with each standard rules set.

You can find the consultation document, proposed standard rules permits and associated generic risk assessments in the related section at the bottom of this page.

Responding to this consultation

This is your opportunity to make sure that the rules work for you and your industry, but also provide the necessary protection to the environment.

The consultation will run for a period of 12 weeks from 1 April 2025 and will close at 23:59pm on 24 June 2025. We will publish our response, together with the new standard rules and risk assessment, on GOV.UK.

Please submit your response using this online consultation tool, as it provides an easy and efficient way to respond. It will also help us to: 

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

If you do not wish to respond using the online tool, you can download the response form attached in the 'related' section of this consultation, located at the bottom of this page.

If you have any queries on this consultation please contact national.groundwater@environment-agency.gov.uk. 

Please follow the 'Online Consultation' link below to start your response.