ABSTRACT
Under the EPA 1990, carrying on a prescribed process without an authorisation from a competent enforcing authority constitutes an offence. Section 2(1) of the EPA 1990 gives the Secretary of State a wide discretion to identify prescribed processes by delegated legislation. Once prescribed the process falls under the provisions of Pt I. There are no precise criteria by which the processes subject to Pt I are to be identified but the Secretary of State may take into account the characteristics of the process and the circumstances in which it is carried on. The Environmental Protection (Prescribed Processes and Substances) Regulations 1991 SI 1991/472 (the 1991 Regulations) list the processes which are subject to IPC and Environment Agency control as well as those which fall under the LAAPC regime. Schedule 1 of the Regulations divides prescribed processes into chapters which reflect six main industry sectors: the production of fuel and power generation; metal production and processing; mineral industries; the chemical industry; waste disposal and recycling; and, other industries. Each chapter is further divided into Part A and Part B lists. The former lists processes which are potentially the most polluting (such as petroleum processing) and are subject to IPC; Part B processes are less polluting and therefore subject to LAAPC. Some processes which fall within the Sched 1 categories are nevertheless excluded from control by virtue of Reg 4. Basically, they are processes which cannot result in the release of substances listed in Scheds 4, 5 and 6 (see below) into air, into water or into land; or will result in the release of only trivial amounts of such substances.
