Environmental Legislation Website

Welcome to the Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) Environmental Legislation Website. The aim of this site is to provide access to information on statutory environmental requirements for offshore upstream oil and gas operations. The website provides guidance on the consents required and the scheduling of these operations. In addition, there is guidance about the consent applications, statutory limits for discharges and emissions, and what statutory and industry reporting mechanisms are in place. Guidance is also given on consent renewal, variation and what to do in the event of non-compliance.

The website is maintained and updated on a quarterly basis to ensure the information provided is accurate and up to date. OEUK News is updated more frequently as required.

The contents of the site is driven by the Oil & Gas UK membership, and if anyone has suggestions for additional topics or summary tables please contact us. In addition any feedback on broken links, errors or useful items for inclusions will be welcomed.

Brexit Updates: The UK left the EU on the 31 January 2020, under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (Exit Day) as amended. Since the end of the transition period (31 December 2020), EU legislation does not apply and legislation has mostly been transposed into domestic law. There are three categories of law that require amending to remain effective in the UK, these are:

  • EU directives have not been retained in the UK.
  • Domestic law which implemented former EU regulations/directions/decisions. These have been/will be amended to remove references to EU member state to ensure they remain effective.
  • EU law which was directly applicable in the UK without the need for implementing legislation. New legislation is required for implementing these in the UK. Some EU regulations/directions/decisions have been retained by the Government and have been/will be adopted into domestic law.

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022 aimed to further integrate retained EU law into domestic law and these will be renamed ‘assimilated laws’. The schedule of EU law that will be revoked at the end of 2023 was updated in May 2023 and is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schedule-of-retained-eu-law. The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022 was then replaced by the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 in September 2023. The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (Revocation and Sunset Disapplication) Regulations 2023 were made to preserve some of the regulations that were due to the revoked through the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023. 

OEUK have prepared a post-Brexit legislation update document (pdf to download here), detailing how the environmental legislation listed in the Legislation Index of this website has been amended to remain applicable in the UK following withdrawal from the EU.

COVID-19: Following the outbreak of COVID-19, OEUK have provided regular updates of any news or guidance that affects the oil and gas industry. The updates can be found here.

OPRED communications: OPRED publish communications to stakeholders relating to the regulation of environmental and decommissioning activity. These communications can be found here.

Crown material has been reproduced with the permission of the controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. The material available in this guide is designed to provide general information only. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is accurate, it does not constitute legal or other professional advice. Content of this site must not be used for re-sale.