Consultation on our regulatory fees and charges for 2023/2024

Results updated 31 Mar 2023

As part of our commitment to continually assess our service delivery, review our charges for regulatory activities, and to ensure processes are as efficient and effective as possible, NRW commissioned a Strategic Review of Charging (SRoC) programme, a root and branch review of the permitting services provided to our customers.

NRW’s charging schemes are based on the principle of full cost recovery in line with Managing Welsh Public Money, HM Treasury rules and obligations under the Natural Resources Body for Wales (Establishment) Order 2012. Our aim is to develop a charging scheme that applies the right charges to our activities and that the cost of our permitting and compliance work is recovered from those we regulate, avoiding subsidy through the public purse (Grant in Aid). By fully cost recovering, this helps ensure NRW is better able to regulate and protect the environment of Wales, contributing to the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources.

NRW is committed to continually improving our processes making them as streamlined and efficient as possible, providing a valuable service and a reduced burden on business. The programme focussed on changes to the fees and charges for new and amended permits. In addition, we also conducted a high-level assessment of our annual subsistence charges.

NRW ran a 12-week public consultation from 10 October 2022 to share our proposed regulatory fees and charges for 2023/24 and seek feedback. We received 102 responses to the consultation from a breadth of individuals, businesses, and organisations. We really value the feedback received and we have taken account of all responses before finalising our proposals.

We commissioned an independent consultant to thematically analyse all consultation responses, which generated the following general themes:

• Criticism of the timing of our charging proposals.
• The suggestion that regulatory charges should be partially funded by Grant in Aid (GiA)
• The view that NRW should offer greater transparency on the charge models used to design the proposed fees and charges.
• The potential for increased charges to disincentivise good environmental behaviours and increase the type and scale of illegal or non-compliant activities.
• The view that NRW should do more to improve guidance and processes and should look to make efficiencies to our permitting and wider regulatory services.
• The suggestion that poor performers and/or polluters should pay more for the regulatory services they use.

The independent analysis also produced a series of regime-specific themes. NRW has responded to the general and regime-specific themes in this consultation response document.

Following the consultation and a review of all feedback received, NRW has made the following revisions to the proposals as consulted upon.

Welsh Government is continuing to undertake the necessary assurance work on the proposals. Advice will then be provided to the Minister and a decision taken thereafter. NRW’s application charges for permits and licences will remain at 2022/23 rates until superseded by the introduction of any new charging scheme, and we will keep our customers updated on timescales for implementation.

From 1 April 2023, NRW’s annual subsistence charges will increase by 6% in eight areas as outlined in our proposals.

1. Water resources abstraction and impoundment charges

The feedback received from the consultation suggested that our proposed new charges would be cost prohibitive for these types of applications. With regards to weir removals in particular, respondents suggested that this activity could cause environmental damage if not carried out sustainably.

In response, we will retain the current 2022/23 application charges to support non-commercial activity undertaken wholly and exclusively for the purpose of environmental benefit within Water Resources (excluding activities to deliver the water company National Environment Programme). We will use water resources subsistence charges to fund the remaining cost of determining these applications. These application charges will be £135 for abstraction licences and £1,500 for impoundment licences or transfer licences.

 

2. Minor amendment charge for species licensing

The feedback received from the consultation suggested that our proposed charge for administrative tasks was too high, since they would not take long to complete.

We agree that some administrative tasks take less time than others and we will therefore charge £73 for a minor amendments and more complex amendments will be charged at an hourly rate of £125/hr.

 

3. Consult on the OPRA replacement tool for installations charges

Through our consultation, we proposed a new way of calculating application charges for Installations that will replace the existing OPRA system. Feedback suggested that respondents were unable to comment fully because the detail of how the tool would affect them was not available.

We will now consult formally on the details of the new banding tool proposed, to provide further transparency of our charges to relevant customers.

We will continue to receive OPRA based application charges at current levels until the new banding tool is consulted on, refined as necessary, and implemented. Subject to the outcomes of the consultation, we plan to implement the new banding tool and associated charges before the end of 2023.

Files:

• Consultation Response Document.pdf, 503.5 KB (PDF document)
• Consultation Responses.csv, 445.6 KB (text/comma-separated-values)
• WRITTEN-RESPONSE-01.pdf, 169.5 KB (PDF document)
• WRITTEN-RESPONSE-02.pdf, 119.9 KB (PDF document)
• WRITTEN-RESPONSE-03.pdf, 596.4 KB (PDF document)
• WRITTEN-RESPONSE-04.pdf, 290.2 KB (PDF document)
• WRITTEN-RESPONSE-05.pdf, 93.9 KB (PDF document)
• WRITTEN-RESPONSE-06.pdf, 152.2 KB (PDF document)
• WRITTEN-RESPONSE-07.pdf, 142.2 KB (PDF document)
• WRITTEN-RESPONSE-08.pdf, 114.0 KB (PDF document)
• WRITTEN-RESPONSE-09.pdf, 149.5 KB (PDF document)
• WRITTEN-RESPONSE-10.pdf, 254.3 KB (PDF document)
• WRITTEN-RESPONSE-11.pdf, 438.2 KB (PDF document)
• WRITTEN-RESPONSE-12.pdf, 771.3 KB (PDF document)