Unit 4:  Current Legislation Affecting UK Industry: Land

4.4.1.4  Responsibility of The Local Authorities

All local authorities will be charged with the responsibility to inspect their areas, at specified periods for contaminated land defined beneath the new section 78A as:

  any land which appears to the local authority inn whose areas it is situated to be in such a condition, by reason of substances in, on or under the land, that: Significant harm is being caused or there is a significant possibility of such harm being caused; or Pollution of controlled waters is being, or is likely to be caused.


The majority of contaminated sites will be controlled and regulated by local authorities. Those sites being most polluted or potentially harmful, and known as Special sites, will be regulated by the EA or SEPA. Special sites are defined as:
  sites where serious harm would or might be caused; or where serious pollution of controlled waters would be or would likely to be caused.


A risk assessment approach is being considered by the government in the identification and assessment of the degree of contamination. Should a pollutant linkage be identified which is: where a pollutant source, a receptor and a pathway are all present, the contamination must then be assessed in terms of the likely harm that it may cause to the receptor (that which the contamination will have an effect upon, such as controlled waters, or the health of humans). harm in this instance is defined as:

  • harm to the health of living organisms or other interference with the ecological systems of which they form part and, in the case of man, includes harm to his property.
  • Harm alone is not a sufficient to be able to use the new contaminated land provisions. The contamination must be likely to cause or be causing significant harm- of which four categories are outlined:

    1. Humans: death; serious injury; serious health risk, etc
    2. Living organisms or ecological systems: irreversible or other substantial changes adversely affecting habitat/site functions.
    3. Buildings: structural failure or other substantial damage, which renders the building incapable for the purpose for which it is intended.