The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Regulations 2012

Surrender of permits U.K.

4.—(1) The notice of surrender must require the operator, in relation to the scheme year in which it takes effect (“ the relevant year”), to—

(a) submit to the regulator by a date specified in the notice a report (“the surrender report”) specifying the reportable emissions from the beginning of the relevant year until the date on which the notice takes effect;

(b) ensure that the surrender report is prepared and verified in accordance with the monitoring and reporting requirements of the greenhouse gas emissions permit to which the application to surrender relates (“the permit”); and

(c) by a date specified in the notice, surrender allowances equal to—

(i) the reportable emissions specified in the surrender report;

(ii) where an operator has failed to comply with the surrender requirements of the permit imposed in respect of the last scheme year for which the date for surrendering allowances in accordance with those requirements has passed, the annual reportable emissions in respect of which the operator failed so to comply;

(iii) where the notice of surrender is served in a scheme year in which an error in the report submitted by an operator under the monitoring and reporting requirements in relation to any earlier scheme year has been discovered, the annual reportable emissions in respect of which, as a result of that error, the operator failed to comply with the surrender requirements of the permit in respect of the scheme year to which the error relates; and

(iv) where an operator has failed to comply with regulation 13(2), the total number of allowances which by the date on which the notice of surrender is served have been issued in respect of the installation which would not have been issued if the operator had so complied.

(2) From the date on which the notice of surrender takes effect—

(a) the permit ceases to have effect to authorise the carrying out of a regulated activity or to require the monitoring of emissions; but

(b) any conditions of the permit continue to have effect so far as they are not superseded by the requirements of that notice in accordance with sub-paragraphs (5) to (7) until the regulator certifies—

(i) that those requirements and any surrender requirements of the permit have been complied with, or

(ii) that there is no reasonable prospect of further allowances being surrendered by the operator in respect of the installation to which the notice relates.

(3) From the scheme year following the relevant year, for the purposes of assessing compliance with any surrender requirements of the permit the amount of reportable emissions of the installation (before any increase in accordance with paragraph 2(5)) is deemed to be zero.

(4) Where the regulator certifies in accordance with sub-paragraph (2)(b)(ii) that there is no reasonable prospect of further allowances being surrendered by the operator, the regulator must notify the registry administrator.

(5) The requirements specified in a notice of surrender pursuant to sub-paragraph (1)(a) and (b) are to be treated as if they were monitoring and reporting requirements of the permit.

(6) Subject to paragraph (7), the requirements specified in a notice of surrender pursuant to sub-paragraph (1)(c) are to be treated as if—

(a) they were surrender requirements of the permit, and

(b) the number of allowances required to be surrendered by the notice of surrender were the annual reportable emissions of the installation in respect of the scheme year to which the notice relates.

(7) Where the surrender report understates any reportable emissions, the requirement to surrender allowances equal to the amount of the understatement is not superseded by the requirements specified in the notice of surrender.

(8) Where the operator fails to comply with the requirements of a notice of surrender included pursuant to sub-paragraph (1), the regulator must notify the registry administrator.