To submit an incident action plan, you’ll need to provide:

• a summary of the incident
• the primary root cause of the incident
• what work is required to prevent the incident from happening again, or move back into compliance
• the date when you’ll deliver the work to prevent further non-compliance
• the delivery cost of the work required to resolve the incident, if known
• details of the measures taken to rectify, limit or prevent any pollution of the environment

We’ll also ask you to provide the:

• National Incident Recording System (NIRS) reference for the incident, if known
• date when the incident occurred, if known
• unique ID for the site if you’re submitting an action plan for a dry day spill incident

Minimum requirements

The Environment Agency recommends using the ‘LIT110433: Incident action plans and duplication for incidents’ document to make sure your incident action plan meets the minimum requirements. If you do not have a copy of this document, contact your local Environment Agency officer or email: wir_incidents@environment-agency.gov.uk

You must agree to follow the guidelines set out in the LIT110433 document including:

• updating the incident action plan at appropriate intervals as actions are delivered or delayed
• submitting records of qualifying repeat incidents when requested by the Environment Agency
• acknowledging that duplication will not be allowed where there is a deterioration in incident impacts or where a different root cause has been identified

Requirements for actions in ana dry day spill incident action plan

Your dry day spill incident action plan must contain at least one action:

• with a completion date within the calendar year you submit it
• for each subsequent year of the plan

The Environment Agency may reject your plan if it does not contain an action with a completion date within the same calendar year.

Requirements for actions in an incident action plan for water industry regulation incidents (WIRI)

Your WIRI action plan must contain at least one short, one medium and one long term action. Water companies should update the actions when they are confirmed and completed. 

Duplicated incidents

You can ask the Environment Agency to link qualifying common incident classification scheme (CICS) category 3 or category 4 incidents together. This is known as a duplicated incident.

The Environment Agency may treat the incidents separately if the incident action plan:

• is not submitted within 8 weeks of the written intent
• is not adhered to
• has not been effective
• is not reviewed and updated in a timely manner by the water company

Submit an incident action plan online

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Get help

For help using this service, email: EDMcompliance@environment-agency.gov.uk