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All organisations must have appropriate emergency response plans in place for coping during any unforeseen crisis or disaster that threatens to interrupt their normal operation. This includes emergencies caused by power cuts and fires, by adverse weather events, such as heatwaves, floods and extreme winter conditions, and those caused by serious security alerts, such as terrorism and bomb threats. Plans should be supported by effective business continuity management arrangements which cover how essential services will be maintained during a crisis and how the business will be recovered as quickly as possible afterwards.

Effluents resulting from non-domestic activities (trade effluents) may be discharged to the sewerage system or in some circumstances directly to inland freshwaters, coastal waters or territorial waters. In Scotland, water bodies subject to regulation are described as the water environment. Planned discharges are regulated using authorisations (eg environmental permits or discharge consents) issued by the environmental regulators or water companies. The authorisations will contain conditions, eg maximum concentrations of polluting substances. Standalone discharges to water, and discharges to sewer, are covered by different legislative regimes, however where a discharge to sewer forms part of a wider operation, this activity may be covered by the relevant authorisation.