Latest Legislation Updates

October 2023

• The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023
  England & Wales: A permit may now be granted in England for any groundwater activity intended to remediate the effects of pollution in groundwater and the injection of substances into groundwater to increase the flow of fluids or gas to a well or borehole for extraction. Also conditions and requirements are given for open loop ground cooling systems in Wales, and for closed loop ground cooling systems in England.
  
• The Finance (No. 2) Act 2023, Schedule 19 (Trade Remedies) (Appointed Day and Savings) Regulations 2023
  United Kingdom: All sections of Schedule 19 of The Finance (No. 2) Act 2023 that are not already in force, will come into effect on 25th August 2023. This amendment has no direct relevance to environmental matters.
  
• The Building Safety Act 2022 (Consequential Amendments etc.) Regulations 2023
  England & Wales: In order to ensure continuity across legislation, technical changes are made. The relevant authority is required to notify the street works authority when it grants approval for a building application where the building is in an advance payments code area. Welsh Ministers are now provided with their own power to make amendments for Wales. 
• The Electricity and Gas (Energy Company Obligation) Order 2023 
  England, Wales & Scotland: This Order establishes a new Energy Compliance Obligation (ECO) scheme, ECO4A, which operates in conjunction with the 4th Energy Compliance Obligation scheme (ECO4). The scheme places duties on large energy suppliers to implement energy efficiency measures and aims to reduce the cost of heating domestic properties.
  
• The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme (Amendment) Order 2023 
  United Kingdom: The methodology for calculating the free allocation of lime and malt extract for 2024 and 2025 is updated. Installations that currently benefit from free allocation must recalculate their free allocation as soon as practicable after 1st January 2024.
  
• The Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) (Exemptions and Modifications) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 
  England, Wales & Scotland: Definitions and requirements are given for vehicles used for the carriage of goods that can be brought temporarily into Great Britain from countries with which the United Kingdom has an international agreement without the need for an operator’s licence.

August 2023

• The Packaging Waste (Data Reporting) (England) Regulations 2023
  England: Clarifications are made on when a brand owner is a producer in relation to packaging, and responsibility for certain packaging is assigned to packers / fillers instead of brand owners. Also, responsibility for certain packaging is assigned to importers.
  
• The Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Amendment Regulations 2023
  Scotland: The marketing or sale (including through online retail or vending machine sales to a consumer in Scotland) of a low-volume drink product (a drink product with fewer than 5000 units sold per year) will now be prohibited unless the producer is listed or registered with Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). The seller must also inform the purchaser that the product is not eligible under the return scheme.
  
• The REACH (Amendment) Regulations 2023
  Great Britain: Following Brexit, to allow the Government time to develop a new transitional registration model for REACH, the following UK REACH information submission deadlines are extended.
• Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 
  United Kingdom: Some EU-derived legislation will be revoked on 31st December 2023. However, any amendments made by law it revokes will still stand.
  
• The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development etc.) (England) (Amendment) Order 2023 
  England:Due to renewed demand for domestic holidaymaking and to support the local tourism industry and film and television production growth, changes are made to planning permissions for the temporary use of land.
  
• The Transport and Works (Applications, Objections and Inquiries Procedure) (Amendment) (England and Wales) Rules 2023 
  England & Wales: From 11th August 2023, applications made under the Transport and Works Act 1992 may be submitted and progressed electronically; this includes public local inquiries. This has been done to transmit information quickly and improve accessibility.

July 2023

• The Plastic Packaging Tax (General) (Amendment) Regulations 2023
  United Kingdom: In order to keep aligned with guidance on the process of claiming a tax credit using the Plastic Packaging Tax online service, organisations can now claim for a tax credit which arises in the same accounting period as the claim. This was previously not possible due to a technical issue.
  
• Act 8 Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023
  Republic of Ireland: Small changes are made to the 1997 Act to include provisions for leave related to medical care, domestic violence and approved flexible working arrangements. This amendment has no direct relevance to occupational health and safety matters.
  
• The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships) (Amendment) Regulations 2023
  United Kingdom: In order to help monitor the carbon intensity of international shipping, UK ships weighing over 400 gross tonnes must adopt new measures to reduce their carbon intensity.
• The Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment) Regulations 2023 
  Great Britain: The limit of mercury contained by electrical and electronic equipment is currently 0.1%; however, for certain specified applications, newly revised limits and exemptions apply.
  
• The Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Wales) Act 2023 
  Wales: A ban on single-use plastics is introduced but not yet fully in force. 
  
• The Building (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2023 
  Scotland: New domestic and non-domestic buildings completed after 1st April 2024 are no longer allowed to be heated or cooled using a direct emission heating system, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

June 2023

• The Carbon Accounting (Determination of Excess UK Assigned Amount Units) Regulations 2023
  United Kingdom: The Secretary of State is required to monitor and review carbon emissions targets to ensure compliance with carbon budgets. There are no duties for organisations under these Regulations; duties are held by the Secretary of State.
• The Heat Networks (Scotland) Act 2021 (Commencement No. 3) Regulations 2023
  United Kingdom: Various sections of the Heat Networks (Scotland) Act 2021 were brought into force on 30th May 2023.
  
• The Building (Public Bodies and Higher-Risk Building Work) (England) Regulations 2023
  England: Clarifications and removal of exemptions are made to ensure that all higher-risk building work must be supervised by the building safety regulator. A requirement is added for public bodies or local authorities to cancel any notice that relates to higher-risk building work.
• The Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 
  Wales: The date that the 170 kilograms per hectare total nitrogen limit and the required annual record keeping of nitrogen produced for occupiers of land located in a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone is amended to now come into force on 31st October 2023.
• The Health and Safety and Nuclear (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 
  Great Britain: Some fees listed by The Health and Safety and Nuclear (Fees) Regulations 2022 are increased by 2%. A new cost recovery regime for ionising radiation consents is introduced, which allows the Office for Nuclear Regulation (from 1st April 2023) and the Health and Safety Executive (from 1st October 2023) to recover their costs related to various applications.
  
• The Health and Safety and Nuclear (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 
  Great Britain: Movement of high risk oak trees is prohibited outside the demarcated area infested by Thaumetopoea processionea L. (an Oak Moth that infests oak trees). Movement of the trees within the area is only allowed if professional operators comply with biosecurity and movement conditions. The thresholds of regulated non-quarantine pests for seed potatoes have been updated.