Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has he made of the adequacy of powers available to (a) local authorities and (b) the Environment Agency to deal with prolonged industrial odours.

Owners of industrial, trade and business premises are expected to use the best practicable means available to reduce odours, effluvia and other potential sources of statutory nuisance emanating from their place of work in the first place. If this is not happening, then local authorities have powers through the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to investigate and issue abatement notices to stop the problem from re-occurring if they determine a statutory nuisance exists.

For industrial installations, the Environment Agency and local authorities currently regulate odour pollution through conditions in environmental permits. Operators of these sites have to use appropriate measures or best available techniques (BAT or UKBAT where it exists) to develop management controls to prevent or, where that is not possible, to reduce them.

The Environment Agency uses permitting and enforcement tools to tackle odour pollution from the sites it regulates. These are used on a sliding scale ranging from advice and guidance to criminal prosecutions for serious pollution incidents, principally through powers from the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

The Government considers the current legislation provides the Environment Agency and local authorities with the necessary powers to deal with these types of issues. The Environment Agency has an ongoing remit to review odour pollution measures and performance from the industrial sites that it regulates.