What is a Section 78R(1) contaminated-land register entry?

Section 78R of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (Part 2A) requires every local authority to keep a public register of land it has formally determined to be contaminated.

An entry means the council has found that substances in the land are causing, or could cause, significant harm or significant pollution of water, through a pathway to something that could be harmed. That is a high bar (inspection, sampling and a formal determination), so the number of determined sites in England is small compared with the land suspected of contamination.

For conveyancers:

1. Check the council's register. Each council publishes its own, in different forms: some search online, some publish a document, some answer a written enquiry.
2. Read the entry. A property near a registered site isn't necessarily affected: the entry describes the source, the pathway and what could be harmed.
3. Add the national data: the Environment Agency's landfill and pollution records.
4. Commission a desk study where the risk is material: a data check is a first look, not a substitute for an environmental consultant.

Certaby's property checks show a council's register where the council publishes it in a usable form (otherwise they say it wasn't checked) and landfill within 500 metres from the Environment Agency's registers. An environmental search covers every council's register.

Source: Environmental Protection Act 1990, Part 2A

Last updated 27 October 2026.