Hazardous substances enforcement: notices, offences and fines

 

Some sites need special permission before they can keep a dangerous chemical on the land in any real quantity. That permission is called hazardous substances consent, and it is separate from ordinary planning permission. Hazardous substances enforcement is what the council can do when a site holds one of these substances without consent, holds more than the consent allows, or breaks a condition on the consent.

This matters because the rules here are stricter than ordinary planning enforcement. Carrying out unauthorised development is not usually a criminal offence in itself, although criminal liability can arise for particular planning offences and for failing to comply with formal notices. Hazardous substances are different: having a controlled substance present in breach of the statutory regime can itself be a criminal offence whether or not a contravention notice has been served.

This page explains who enforces these rules, the notice the council can serve, the offence that stands on its own, how you challenge a notice, and what it can cost you.

 

Who deals with hazardous substances enforcement

 

The body in charge is called the hazardous substances authority. In most places that is your local council, the same one that deals with planning, so you can treat them as the same office for practical purposes. A handful of sites, such as some run by public bodies, have a different authority, but for an ordinary reader it will be the council.

The council works closely with the Health and Safety Executive when it decides these cases, because the whole point of the control is safety. The question is not really whether something looks out of place, it is whether a dangerous quantity of a substance is sitting somewhere it has not been assessed and approved.

 

Having the substance without consent is already an offence

 

This is the part that catches people out, so it comes first. With an ordinary planning breach, carrying out development without permission is not usually itself a criminal offence; criminal liability often arises later if a relevant notice takes effect and is not complied with. Hazardous substances are different.

There is a contravention of the rules if a dangerous substance is present in a quantity at or above the controlled level and either there is no consent for it, or there is consent but the amount goes over what the consent allows, or a condition on the consent has been broken. Where that happens, an offence has been committed straight away, and no notice is needed for that to be true.

The people who can be prosecuted are the person who knowingly caused the substance to be there, anyone who allowed it to be there, and the person in control of the land. So a landowner cannot simply blame a tenant and walk away.

There are defences. It is a defence to show you took all reasonable precautions and used all due diligence to avoid the offence, or that the only way to avoid it would have been to break another legal duty. In some cases it is also a defence to show you genuinely did not know, and had no reason to know, that the substance was there or was over the limit.

 

The hazardous substances contravention notice

 

Alongside the offence, the council has a notice it can serve to put things right. It is called a hazardous substances contravention notice. Think of it as the equivalent of an enforcement notice, but for this special control.

The council can serve one where it appears to them that the rules are being or have been broken, if they think it is the sensible thing to do having weighed up everything that is relevant. The notice sets out what is said to be wrong and the steps needed to put it right, wholly or partly. Those steps can go as far as requiring the substance to be removed from the land altogether, and the notice can direct that any consent for that substance then ends.

A copy has to be served on the owner of the land, on anyone else who appears to be in control of it, and on other people with an interest in the land who are materially affected. The notice has to give a date on which it takes effect, and that date must be at least 28 days after it is served. It also has to say how long you then have to carry out each step.

The council can withdraw a notice at any time, before or after it takes effect, without giving up the right to serve another one.

 

How to challenge a hazardous substances enforcement notice

 

If you are served with one of these notices, you can appeal against it to the Secretary of State, in practice the Planning Inspectorate, before it takes effect. This is one of the reasons the notice cannot bite for at least 28 days.

Making the appeal in time is important, because once you appeal the notice has no effect until the appeal is decided or withdrawn. In other words, a valid appeal buys you time and freezes the notice.

The grounds you can argue are set out in the regulations, and in plain terms they are:

• that consent ought to be granted for the amount present, or the condition ought to be discharged
• that the things said to be a breach did not actually happen
• that what happened is not in fact a breach of the rules
• that the notice was not served on everyone it should have been
• that the steps demanded go further than they need to
• that the time given to comply is too short

You have to say which grounds you rely on and set out your case on each. If you lose the appeal and want to go further, the only route beyond that is a challenge in the High Court on a point of law, which is a narrow and short-deadline remedy rather than a fresh look at the merits. Our guide to planning appeals explains how the appeal system works more generally.

 

What happens if you ignore the notice

 

Ignoring a hazardous substances contravention notice once it has taken effect is a separate offence in its own right, on top of the original one. So doing nothing makes the position worse, not better.

The council also does not have to wait for the courts. It can enter the land, carry out the required steps itself, and recover its reasonable costs of doing so from the owner. Because these cases are about public safety, the council can act quickly.

On top of all this, the council can ask the court for an injunction to stop or prevent a breach where that is the right way to deal with it. Our page on a planning injunction explains how those work.

 

Rights of entry

 

An authorised officer can enter land to check whether these rules are being followed, whether a notice has been complied with, and whether it is worth serving one. Where entry is refused, or the case needs it, a warrant can be obtained from a magistrate. This is normal for a control that exists to protect people living and working nearby.

 

What it costs

 

There is no fee to appeal against a hazardous substances contravention notice. The real financial risk is elsewhere.

If you are convicted of an offence, whether the main one or ignoring a notice, the fine is unlimited, and the court is specifically told to take account of any money you made or stood to make from the breach. If the council does the work itself, you can be billed for its reasonable costs. And if you are thinking about applying for consent in the first place, that carries its own fee, which we cover on our planning fees page.

 

Should you just apply for consent

 

Often, yes. If a site genuinely needs to hold one of these substances, the sensible course is nearly always to apply for hazardous substances consent and to keep within its limits and conditions, rather than to risk a criminal record and an open-ended fine. Because having the substance without consent is an offence from day one, this is not a control where waiting to see if anyone notices is a safe plan.

If you are dealing with a wider enforcement problem, see our overview of planning enforcement.

 

 

Relevant legislation for hazardous substances enforcement

 

Links below go to legislation.gov.uk. Always check the “Changes to Legislation” panel at the top of each provision, because amendments are often listed there before they are written into the text. This page describes the law as it applies in England; Wales has its own regulations.

• Planning (Hazardous Substances) Act 1990, section 23, the offence of contravening hazardous substances control
• Planning (Hazardous Substances) Act 1990, section 24, the power to issue a hazardous substances contravention notice
• Planning (Hazardous Substances) Act 1990, section 25, appeals against a notice and the effects that apply to it
• Planning (Hazardous Substances) Act 1990, section 26AA, injunctions
• Planning (Hazardous Substances) Act 1990, section 36, rights of entry
• The Planning (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/627), the England regulations, including the notice content and the grounds of appeal in Schedule 4

Other Enforcement Sections

 

 

 

Hazardous Substances Enforcement Page Updated: 22nd August 2026