Works approvals and licences
EPA issues works approvals and licences for building and development that could impact the environment.
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A works approval allows you to conduct works or make changes to your scheduled premises. For example, undertaking works including constructing a new plant or installing new plant equipment.
An EPA licence allows a business to run certain activities at a licensed premises. For example, waste treatment and disposal.
Licence holders must send us an annual performance statement every year. Annual performance statements include:
- the environmental performance of the licence holder
- how the business has complied with its licence.
We inspect licence holders to check they comply with their licence. The Licensed Operator Risk Assessment (LORA) is a tool that generates risk scores of sites. Based on the scores, sites are chosen for inspections. The inspections based on LORA scores are called Licence Compliance Assessments (LCA).
Some licences and works approvals include a financial assurance condition. This means the business must provide a financial security. The financial security is to cover cleanup and remediation costs for pollution if a site operator abandons a site, becomes insolvent or can't cover the costs themselves.
Some activities and premises are exempt from licensing and works approvals. They must send us an environmental improvement plan to show how they’ll manage their impact on the environment.
You can search for licences and annual performance statements on our website.
Read next
About licences and work approvals
About annual performance statements
Licensed Operator Risk Assessments (LORA)
Search for licences and annual performance statements
Environment improvement plans (EIPS)
Reviewed 28 October 2019
