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8.0 Presentation of a UK-PRTR
8.1 The PRTR Protocol places an additional requirement on the UK to present PRTR Protocol/ E-PRTR data on a UK-PRTR that is accessible to the public via electronic means. SEPA's SPRI and the EA's Pollution Inventory already go some way towards delivering this objective. However, there are no comparable systems in place for those E-PRTR activities regulated by local authorities in England and Wales, the NIEHS, or the DBERR.
8.2 Various options have been considered for addressing these shortfalls, all of which are variations on either: (1) setting up separate publicly accessible web-enabled databases for local authority, NIEHS and DBERR regulated activities, and linking them with the existing databases via a single internet portal; or (2) establishing a new publicly accessible web-enabled database that includes data for the UK as whole 15. These options are considered in more detail in the Partial Regulatory Impact Assessment (Annex B).
8.3 It is proposed that one UK-wide PRTR will be established (Option 2). This will, at a minimum, present and allow users to interrogate the same data package that is required to be submitted to the European Commission under the E-PRTR Regulation on an annual basis. This approach will cost less, in terms of initial set-up and ongoing costs (see the Partial Regulatory Impact Assessment at Annex B), than setting up and maintaining separate publicly accessible web-enabled PRTRs for local authority regulated activities, activities in Northern Ireland, and offshore oil and gas installations, as well as a portal web-site linking all the various systems. It will also bring a much greater sense of cohesion to PRTR reporting across the UK, and thus simplify the system in the eyes of the public, and enable users to access UK-wide data from one source.
8.4 SEPA and the EA will review the role of their domestic inventories to see how they could be integrated with, or work most effectively alongside the UK-PRTR.
Question 5: do agree with the proposed option for establishing a UK-PRTR?
8.5 At a minimum, the UK-PRTR will be web-based and enable releases and transfers to be searched and identified by members of the public according to the following criteria:
- activity;
- geographical location;
- operator;
- pollutant and waste;
- each environmental media into which the pollutant is released; and
- the destination of the waste transfer, and where appropriate, the disposal and recovery operation for waste.
Question 6: should the UK-PRTR have any other functionality?
8.6 The PRTR Protocol also requires that the UK-PRTR presents information on releases of pollutants from diffuse sources, and that this data can be searched and identified according to those diffuse sources. The UK already has information available for the atmospheric environment through the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory ( NAEI). This is a DEFRA funded inventory that provides estimates of annual releases to the atmosphere of 41 pollutants which fall into one or more of the following categories: greenhouse gases, air quality strategy pollutants, acidifying pollutants, ozone precursors, base, persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals. This data is currently only searchable according to particular pollutants, but it will be adapted so that it can also be searched by diffuse pollutant source categories. The UK-PRTR will include a link to the NAEI.
8.7 The development and maintenance of the UK-PRTR will be overseen by a steering group made up of a full range of relevant government and agency interests. This group will seek to involve external stakeholders, including industry and civil society group representatives, where appropriate, and especially when changes are intended to the UK-PRTR. One of the issues that the group will consider is the feasibility of presenting information on pollutants discharged into waters from diffuse sources on the UK-PRTR.
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