Back to EASR authorisations

Activities that do not require an authorisation

You would not normally need an authorisation to carry out the following common, low-risk, activities. However, if any of these activities cause, or become likely to cause, environmental harm, we may take enforcement action.

Waste management activities

An authorisation is not required when the activity does not involve managing waste. For example:

• Materials excluded from the definition of waste as listed in Article 2 of the Waste Framework Directive.
• Materials that are by-products’ or comply with ‘end-of-waste’ criteria.
• Re-using products for their original purpose. Read our guidance on reuse activities for more information.
• A domestic activity carried out in connection with a person’s private dwelling. This includes storing waste in a household’s own bins, transporting household waste to a Household Waste Recycling Centre, or composting waste in the person’s garden.

Authorisations are also not needed to carry out the following waste management activities: 

Recovery of waste for construction, restoration, reclamation, or improvement of land

• Use of uncontaminated soil and other naturally occurring material, used for the purposes of construction, on the site from which it was excavated (as described in Article 2 of EU Directive 2008/98/EC).
• Use of contaminated soils and materials, on the site from which it was excavated, where such use is in line with our guidance on land remediation and waste management.
• Use of greenfield soils in line with SEPA’s Greenfield Soils Guidance
• Use of recycled aggregate made in line with our end-of-waste guidance on recycled aggregates made from inert waste.
• Reuse of Type 1 aggregate (for example, recovered from temporary haul roads) where use is certain, and it can be used directly with no further treatment.
• Use of incinerator bottom ash aggregate (IBAA) in line with our Regulatory Position Statement on use of unbound incineration bottom ash aggregate in construction.

Activities not considered waste incineration

Some secondary materials are considered to be fuels and not waste when used for energy production. Use of these fuels is not waste incineration and activities involving their use do not need an EASR authorisation. For example:

• Fuels with ‘end-of-waste’ status, for example, tallow, processed fuel oil and biodiesel. Read our end-of-waste guidance for more information on processed fuel oil.
• Clean biomass materials, such as timber sawmill off-cuts, selected Grade A recycled timber and draff from whisky distilleries. Read our guidance for biomass combustion for more information.
• Manure from poultry and other farmed animals when authorised as combustion under animal by-products legislation by the Animal & Plant Health Agency.
• Disposal of less than 50kg per hour of animal carcasses (including pet crematoria) when authorised under animal by-products legislation by the Animal & Plant Health Agency.

Please note, another type of authorisation may be needed for use of these fuels.

Low risk waste activities

Some low risk waste activities will not generally need an authorisation. For details of what these are and the conditions relating to each type of activity, read low risk waste activities.

Water activities

An authorisation is not needed to carry out the following water activities:

Abstraction

• Abstraction of water from the public water supply infrastructure.
• Removal or diversion of water because of land drainage works. During the construction phase, the abstraction of groundwater from the dewatering (passive or otherwise) of road, rail or other cuttings is regulated by a General Binding Rule (GBR), registration or permit as any other abstraction would be. Once an operational final passive drainage system is in place for the cutting, such as a pipe network to collect run off and seepage, the activity will be treated as land drainage works and as such no further authorisation will be required.
• Temporary abstraction of water to enable working within a river, including the over pumping of water.
• Abstractions from coastal waters by vessels where the water is returned to the water environment from the vessel.
• Abstractions of water stored in off-line impoundments and artificial storage ponds that receive their inflow from an already authorised abstraction. Please note that an authorisation is required for an abstraction from a dug storage pond collecting water from field drains or groundwater.
• Abstractions from artificial treatment systems, including sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) and quarry settlement lagoons.
• Abstraction for the purposes of firefighting.
• Abstraction of rainwater from construction site excavations or quarries of volcanic or metamorphic rocks (e.g., basalt, granite, and schist). Please note that the abstraction of groundwater from excavations and the abstraction of groundwater from quarries are regulated activities and General Binding Rule 15 applies.

Engineering activities

• Engineering activities below the surface of the ground only affecting groundwater.
• Engineering activities in coastal and transitional waters (these are regulated by Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate).
• Engineering activities in wetlands that are solely dependent on a body of groundwater.
• Engineering activities (except culverting for land-gain, dredging and permanent diversions or realignments) on minor watercourses. A minor watercourse is one that is not shown on the 1:50,000 scale Ordnance Survey maps (Landranger series),
• Construction and maintenance of land drainage works (including road drains and field drains) that do not affect a natural watercourse.
• The removal or management of in-stream or bankside (riparian) vegetation and instream debris or rubbish, including fallen trees.
• For certain activities, such as gold panning, large, wood beaver structures and fish counters and traps, detailed in our engineering activity guide for sediment management and our engineering activity guide for in-stream and in-loch structures.

Impoundments

• The construction and operation of off-line impoundments. For example, impoundments that receive their inflow from an authorised abstraction (including impoundments constructed by farmers to hold water used for irrigation and firewater ponds or impoundments used by industry).
• Impoundments that form part of an artificial treatment system.
• Impoundments in artificial water bodies, for example, canals and lades (including lochs), that hold back flows within the canal or lade. The placement and operation of temporary impoundments solely for the purpose of pollution control associated with construction and development sites do not require authorisation.
• The construction, modification, removal or operation of any impoundment in inland surface water, or wetlands, for peatland restoration or wetland creation, where the activity is:
  • Carried out in artificial drainage channels or eroded channels not shown on the 1:50,000 scale Ordnance Survey maps (Landranger series).
  • Not associated with an abstraction.
• Construction or alteration of impoundments in coastal and transitional waters (these are regulated by Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate).
• Maintenance of an impoundment where there is no alteration to:
  • Impoundment height or capacity impounded.
  • The footprint of the impoundment.
  • The flow over or through the impoundment.
  • Install a fish pass or screen.

Pollution control

• Discharge of a reagent, chemical, or particle tracer, used in connection with scientific experiment or survey in transitional water or coastal water. A marine licence may be required by Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate for these discharges.
• Occasional discharge from public water treatment works, and the water supply system, provided this is undertaken in accordance with the Water Supply Hygiene Code of Practice (Scottish Water) or the Water (Scotland) Act 1980. For more information, read our guidance on discharges from water treatment works.
• Discharge of uncontaminated groundwater abstracted directly through boreholes/well pointing, without contact with any other drainage run-off, to dewater opencast coal sites, quarries, or construction sites.
• Discharge of uncontaminated groundwater that arises during the construction or extension of a borehole or well.
• Discharge from storage tanks or pipelines that are filled with clean water, to test water tightness, for example, fish farm tanks, chemical or oil storage tanks.
• Discharge of uncontaminated rainwater that has collected in an oil storage bund, i.e., no visible sheen.
• Initial pumping out of water from a dry dock and any uncontaminated water that is released by the opening of gates.
• Discharge of naturally occurring fish bacterial pathogen-specific bacteriophages from finfish farm facilities.
• Discharge from a vessel in coastal and transitional waters (except for discharge of medicine residues from wellboats for marine finfish farms, which are controlled by Merchant Shipping legislation). 
• Discharge of filter backwash waters with a volume of less than 1m³ /day, which comes from the maintenance of abstraction equipment to a soakaway. The discharge must not be direct to groundwater and must not contain any added substances or heat that are not derived from the water that is being treated. For more information, read our guidance on discharges from water treatment works.
• Disposal of dechlorinated bleach solution used to clean beehives onto vegetated land.
• Washing down of slipways, jetties, and other human-made infrastructure, with water to remove marine life or algae. Chemicals must not be used, and the work must not remove paint or other coatings

Industrial activities

Under Schedule 19 of the Environmental Authorisation (Scotland) Regulations, ‘industrial emissions activity’ does not include the following activities, and you will not need an authorisation for:

• Research activities.
• Development activities.
• Testing of new products and processes.

The exception is where the activities listed above involve incineration and co-incineration of liquid or solid waste at a waste incineration plant or co-incineration plant.

Under Schedule 26 of the Environmental Authorisation (Scotland) Regulations, ‘other emissions activity’ does not include activities carried out:

• In a working museum to demonstrate an industrial activity of historic interest.
• For educational purposes in a school within the meaning of section 135(1) of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980(84).
• At a place used solely for research activities, development activities, or the testing of new products and processes.

It also does not include:

• The running of an engine propelling a vehicle (including testing or developing the engine), locomotive or vessel (or provides electricity for propulsion).
• The use of a fume cupboard in a laboratory for research and testing that is not either a fume cupboard which is an industrial and continuous production activity enclosure, or a fume cupboard in which substances or materials are manufactured. “Fume cupboard” means a ventilated enclosure complying with the requirements specified in British Standard BS EN 14175-2:2003 on Fume Cupboards(85).