The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Regulations 2005

Revocation of greenhouse gas emissions permits

17.—(1) Subject to paragraph (3), the regulator may at any time revoke a greenhouse gas emissions permit by serving a notice (“a revocation notice”) on the operator and where the revocation relates to an installation included in a pool in accordance with regulation 27, on the appropriate authority.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (1) the regulator shall serve a notice under paragraph (1) where an operator fails to comply with an obligation under regulation 16(1).

(3) Where an approved national allocation plan provides for allowances allocated in respect of an installation in which a Schedule 1 activity is no longer carried out to continue to be issued during the scheme phase to which the approved national allocation plan relates, the regulator shall not revoke the greenhouse gas emissions permit which relates to that installation until after 28^th February in the last scheme year in that scheme phase.

(4) A revocation notice shall specify the date on which the notice shall, subject to regulation 32(10), take effect, which shall be at least 28 days after the date on which the notice is served.

(5) A revocation notice shall specify that the operator is, in relation to the scheme year in which the revocation takes effect, required to—

(a) except where a revocation notice relates to an excluded installation which was an excluded installation for the whole of the scheme year up to the date on which the notice is served, submit to the regulator by the date specified in the notice a report specifying the reportable emissions from the beginning of the scheme year in which the revocation notice is served until the date on which the revocation notice is served on the operator and to ensure that such report is verified in accordance with the relevant monitoring and reporting conditions; and

(b) by the date specified in the notice surrender allowances equal to—

(i) the reportable emissions specified in a report referred to in sub-paragraph (a);

(ii) where an operator has failed to comply with a condition of a greenhouse gas emissions permit imposed pursuant to regulation 10(3) in respect of the last scheme year for which the date for surrendering allowances in accordance with that condition has passed, the annual reportable emissions in respect of which the operator failed to comply with that condition in that year;

(iii) where a revocation notice is served in a scheme year in which an error in the report submitted by an operator under a monitoring and reporting condition 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 condition of a greenhouse gas emissions permit imposed pursuant to regulation 10(3) in respect of the scheme year to which the error relates;

(iv) where a supplementary decision has been made under regulation 25(2) or (7), the total number of allowances which on the date on which the revocation notice is served have been issued in respect of the installation which would not have been issued if the statement referred to in regulation 25(1)(a) or 25(7)(a) had not been false or misleading; and

(v) where the notice is served in accordance with paragraph (2), the total number of allowances which on the date on which the notice is served have been issued in respect of the installation which would not have been issued if the operator had complied with regulation 16(1).

(6) Where a revocation notice is served in accordance with paragraph (2), regulation 24(11) or regulation 25(3), the revocation notice shall require the operator to pay, within such period as may be specified in the notice, the fee prescribed in respect of a revocation notice in Schedule 5.

(7) From the date on which the revocation notice takes effect, the greenhouse gas emissions permit shall cease to have effect to authorise the carrying out of a Schedule 1 activity and to require the monitoring and reporting of emissions but the conditions of the permit shall continue to have effect in so far as they are not superseded by the requirements of the notice specified pursuant to paragraph (5) until the regulator certifies that either the requirements of the notice specified pursuant to paragraph (5) and any conditions of the greenhouse gas emissions permit imposed pursuant to regulation 10(3) have been complied with, or that there is no reasonable prospect of further allowances being surrendered by the operator in respect of the installation to which the notice relates.

(8) From the scheme year following the scheme year in which the revocation notice takes effect, for the purposes of assessing compliance with a condition of the permit imposed pursuant to regulation 10(3), the reportable emissions of the installation, before any increase in accordance with regulation 10(4), shall be deemed to be zero.

(9) Except where paragraph (10) applies, where the regulator certifies in accordance with paragraph (7) that there is no reasonable prospect of further allowances being surrendered by the operator it shall notify the registry administrator.

(10) Where the regulator certifies in accordance with paragraph (7) that there is no reasonable prospect of further allowances being surrendered by the operator because the operator holding account has been closed in accordance with Article 17(1) of the Registries Regulation, regulation 39 shall apply as if the failure to surrender sufficient allowances to comply with any conditions of the greenhouse gas emissions permit imposed pursuant to regulation 10(3) in a previous scheme year prior to the date on which the operator holding account is closed, were a further failure to comply with a condition imposed pursuant to regulation 10(3).

(11) The requirements specified in a revocation notice pursuant to paragraph (5)(a) shall be treated as if they were monitoring and reporting conditions.

(12) The requirements specified in a revocation notice pursuant to paragraph (5)(b) shall be treated as if they were conditions of the greenhouse gas emissions permit imposed pursuant to regulation 10(3) and the number of allowances required to be surrendered were the annual reportable emissions of the installation in respect of the scheme year to which the notice relates.

(13) Where an installation fails to comply with the requirements of a revocation notice included pursuant to paragraph (5), the regulator shall notify the registry administrator.

(14) A regulator which has served a revocation notice may, before the date on which the revocation takes effect, withdraw the notice.