Hazardous substances

Hazardous substance consent

The role of HSC

The planning system deals with preventing and limiting the consequences of major accidents in three key ways:

•
via hazardous substances consent (HSC). Owners and operators wishing to hold stocks of specified hazardous chemicals and similar substances on, over or under land above a threshold quantity must obtain an HSC from the relevant hazardous substances authority. See Practice Note: Hazardous substance zones and consent
•
handling development proposals around hazardous installations, and
•
dealing with hazardous substances in plan making

See Practice Note: Hazardous substances and planning.

The basis of statutory control

HSCs are regulated by:

•
the Planning (Hazardous Substances) Act 1990 (P(HS)A 1990)
•
(in England) the Planning (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2015, SI 2015/627 (the PHSR 2015)
•
(in Wales) the Planning (Hazardous Substances) (Wales) Regulations, SI 2015/1597 (the PHSWR 2015)
•
the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 2015, SI 2015/483 (CMAHR 2015)

Derived from Archived EU Seveso III Directive 2012/18/EU on the control of major accident hazards involving dangerous substances, as it had effect immediately before 11pm on 31 December 2020 (the

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