Environment Agency Consults on Updates to the Environmental Permitting: H5 Site Condition Report guidance

On 24 November 2025, the Environment Agency (“EA”) launched a consultation on revised guidance for Site Condition Reports (“SCR”) under the Environmental Permitting regime. The consultation will close on 18 January 2026.

The Proposed Changes

Subject to responses to the consultation, the EA proposes to replace its 2013 H5 SCR guidance, the associated 2013 H5 template and the Regulatory Guidance Note 9 – Surrender, with updated guidance and a new SCR template. This could have a significant impact on anyone who requires an environmental permit to operate their business, including adding additional costs, timescales and management burdens to anyone operating in any permitted sectors.

“No deterioration” requirement

The proposals clarify what operators must demonstrate on application for a permit, during operation and on surrender of all or part of a permit to evidence the “no deterioration” requirement under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (“EPR”). In effect, permit holders will be required to prepare SCRs to show that, upon surrender, the site is in the same condition it was in when the permit was issued. An SCR describes and records the condition of the soil and groundwater at a regulated site at different points in time. Preparing an SCR at application, maintaining it during operation and producing a surrender SCR will enable the permit holder to demonstrate that they have protected the soil and groundwater from their permitted activities and that no additional contamination has occurred during operation of the regulated facility.

Mandatory SCRs for standard rules waste operations permits

The revised guidance explicitly specifies that an SCR will be required when an applicant applies for a bespoke or standard rules permit for an A1 installation carrying out any of the activities in Part 2 of Schedule 1 to the EPR[1], which includes:

• low-impact and intensive farm operations;
• bespoke or standard rules water operation permits carrying out certain waste disposal or recovery activities;
• bespoke permits for mining waste operations specified in Part 2 of Schedule 20 of the EPR; and
• waste handling or treatment areas associated with a permanent deposit of landfill and deposit for recovery activities.

It also confirms when an SCR will not be required. The introduction of a mandatory requirement for applicants for standard rules waste operations permits to produce an SCR, if adopted, would be a significant policy shift from the current position, where SCRs are recommended but not required for such permits.  

Clarification of SCR requirements

The updated guidance sets out, in more prescriptive terms, the information needed to produce an application SCR, maintain this through the life of the permit and prepare a surrender SCR. This will enable the permit holder to demonstrate that they have protected the soil and groundwater from their permitted activities and that the site is in a satisfactory state on their application for surrender.

The consultation also includes an updated SCR template which can be accessed here.

Application

For the application SCR, the condition of the soil and groundwater must be described by setting a point of reference to assess whether any additional contamination occurs during operation of the permitted site.

Maintenance

Once a permit is issued, the SCR must be maintained for the duration of the permit. This requires permit holders to maintain written records in their management system, notify the EA of proposed changes to permitted activities, inspect and maintain pollution prevention measures, manage pollution incidents promptly and effectively and conduct soil and groundwater monitoring where applicable.

Surrender

When a permit holder applies to surrender all or part of their permit, they must produce a surrender SCR evidencing that the permitted activities and decommissioning works have not caused pollution and that the site is in a satisfactory state, having regard to its condition prior to permitting. The updated guidance details the information to be included in a surrender SCR, which includes evidence that the criteria for a low-risk surrender are met where applicable, a summary of measures taken to protect soil and groundwater, details of decommissioning, details of any required remediation and a statement confirming the site is in a satisfactory state.

Additional requirements for A1 Installations

The guidance also clarifies the requirements under the Industrial Emissions Directive (“IED”), which imposes additional requirements on A1 installations. Where the associated activity involves the use, production or release of relevant hazardous substances that could pollute soil and groundwater, A1 installations must prepare a baseline report. Additionally, periodic soil and groundwater monitoring must be undertaken where required.

A1 installations with risks from relevant hazardous substances must also carry out an intrusive investigation to collect soil and groundwater samples for use as surrender reference data, enabling a quantitative comparison to baseline conditions.

The amended guidance sets out a stage 1-3 assessment that A1 installations must follow to identify hazardous substances that could pollute soil and groundwater. This involves identifying hazardous substances, identifying hazardous relevant substances and assessing potential pollution risk. The EA has provided a worked example that can be accessed here.

The guidance also recommends that all other sites undertake a stage 1-3 assessment to identify any risk of pollution to soil or groundwater from hazardous substances or other potentially polluting substances proposed to be used, produced or released at the site. If such risks are identified, these substances can be referred to as relevant substances and the permit holder should consider establishing baseline reference data for them.

Comment

Although these changes do not immediately seem too onerous, they could have real impact on permitted operations. The cost, time and complexity of producing application and surrender SCRs, and maintaining any such reports for the entirety of the permitted period, is significant, particularly for holders of standard rules permits for activities generally considered to be of a lower risk to the environment. This is particularly the case where intrusive site investigations are required to understand the state and condition of the site in question.

Anyone potentially affected by these proposals should take the opportunity to respond to the consultation. If the new guidance is implemented as proposed, we would also suggest the following key actions are taken:

• Operators should ensure that these new requirements are factored into programmes or timescales for proposed commencement dates at new sites;
• Onsite management teams should be made aware of the ongoing maintenance and document-retention requirements, and be appropriately trained and experienced to be able to assess the ongoing relevance and appropriateness of the SCR; and
• Sufficient time and resources should be made available prior to the proposed surrender of any permits to ensure that detailed environmental and technical assessments can be procured, including seeking advice from specialist environmental consultants or on legal compliance issues. This may also delay surrender decisions by the EA, or make the decision-making less certain, as they will be required to assess more and more detailed information before agreeing to such a surrender.

Emerging Contaminants

The updated guidance does not explicitly address emerging contaminants, such as some PFAS, which are not currently subject to regulatory requirements. However, it is possible that this may change in the future and that acceptable thresholds for these substances could be reduced over time. The risk is compounded by the fact PFAS are now widely spread in the environment, increasing the likelihood that such contamination could migrate onto an operator’s site from external sources during the permit term.

Nicola Power, an environmental specialist at CMS advised that “operators are likely to be best served by:

1. conducting a comprehensive baseline survey at the permit application stage that covers a broad range of potential contaminants, including those that are likely to migrate on site during the permit term;

2. determining, at the permit application stage, how site condition will be effectively monitored during longer term operations and designing monitoring into operations from the outset, including measures to detect potential on-site migration;

3. regularly reviewing monitoring results and any further investigations undertaken during the permit term and taking prompt action if there is evidence of contamination from on- or off-site sources; and

4. maintaining good records to support surrender of the permit.”

Next Steps

The government intends to publish the consultation results within 12 weeks of the closing date of 18 January 2026. Upon publication of the updated guidance, the 2013 SCR guidance and Regulatory Guidance Note 9 – Surrender will be withdrawn. The 2013 H5 SCR template will also be withdrawn and replaced with the revised template, subject to responses to the consultation.

Responses to the consultation can be submitted here or by submitting a response form, as detailed at the link, sent directly to conland@environment-agency.gov.uk.

If you wish to discuss the content of this article, or would like further information, please contact the authors of this article or your usual CMS contact.