The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016

Power of the regulator to prevent or remedy effects of flood risk activities

58.—(1) If the regulator considers that the carrying on of an exempt flood risk activity or a flood risk activity under an environmental permit involves a risk specified in paragraph (2), it may arrange for steps to be taken to remove that risk.

(2) The following are risks specified for purposes of paragraph (1)—

(a) risk of serious flooding;

(b) risk of serious detrimental impact on drainage;

(c) risk of serious harm to the environment.

(3) If the regulator arranges for steps to be taken under this regulation, it may recover the cost of taking those steps from the operator.

(4) But costs are not recoverable under paragraph (3)—

(a) if the steps referred to in paragraph (1) are taken in relation to a risk specified in paragraph (2) and the operator shows there was no such risk, or

(b) to the extent that the operator shows that the costs were unnecessarily incurred by the regulator.