Commercial Kitchen Extraction Regulations in the UK: Law, Guidance and What Each Asks of the Extract System

Commercial kitchen extraction regulations in the UK are not one regulation. The duty to ventilate comes from workplace law, the gas interlock from gas safety law through BS 6173, the design standard from DW/172 by way of Approved Document F, the cleaning regime from fire law and the insurers through TR19 Grease, and the smell and smoke at the outlet from statutory nuisance law and the planning system.

Which of those decides a project depends less on the kitchen than on the address. The same cookline can need a low level of odor control in a retail park and a high level on a high street where the nearest window is 15 m away and the discharge sits below the eaves, because the odor risk score the council runs, not the extract rate, sets the level of pollution control it asks for.

This guide maps the instruments by type, states what each asks of the extract system and who enforces it, sets out the EMAQ+ risk assessment behind the councils’ conditions, and shows which document proves what. It does not decide the odor control level or the planning outcome for an address; the local authority does, working from a risk score you can total yourself — the method, and the question of which guidance still applies after the 2017 withdrawal, are set out in commercial kitchen odour control in the UK. For the specification clauses and their numbers, see DW/172 kitchen ventilation specification; for the equipment, see the kitchen electrostatic precipitator page.

One disclosure: Polygee builds in-duct electrostatic precipitators. No UK instrument approves an ESP as such; our units hold CE on the series named on our certificates page and third-party grease removal test reports, and we state on request what a model carries and what it does not.

The map: statute, specification, guidance and local policy

Four kinds of document make up what the trade calls commercial kitchen extraction regulations, and only the first kind is law; the other three bind through the first, through the contract, or through a condition someone attaches. A statute creates the duty; a specification such as DW/172 or TR19 Grease says how the industry meets it and becomes enforceable when a specifier, an insurer or a council cites it; guidance such as the HSE catering sheets and the EMAQ+ document tells enforcers what good looks like; and local policy, the council’s own guideline, turns all of that into the conditions on a specific permission.

This table answers which of the UK’s commercial kitchen extraction regulations asks for what and who applies it. It does not answer what a given kitchen must install; the next three sections take the questions a project meets in order: what the kitchen must have, what the outlet must do, and how the system is kept clean. The product standards behind the equipment, BS EN 16282 and the CE or UKCA marking, sit in the evidence table further down.

What the law makes the kitchen have

The kitchen must have a canopy over every appliance that produces fumes, extraction calculated from those appliances, clean make-up air, a gas interlock where the cooking is gas, and filters that come out for cleaning. HSE Catering Information Sheet 10 adds the detail the map cannot hold. Grease filters are to be easy to remove; the extraction rate is calculated from the appliance information with the kitchen’s air change rates taken into account; the discharge carries no rain cap that impedes the upward velocity and never a device that points it down; and among the design decisions a caterer settles with a competent designer is the air cleaning system, for grease removal at the canopy and also before final discharge outside.

The numbers behind those sentences are DW/172’s, from the appliance coefficients and the canopy overhang to the access spacing and the discharge velocity, set out clause by clause in DW/172 kitchen ventilation specification; the U.S. counterparts are collected in commercial kitchen hood code requirements. DW/172’s own make-up air section is read clause by clause in commercial kitchen makeup air requirements. The food hygiene regulation adds a construction rule that matters for anything placed in the duct: filters and other parts requiring cleaning or replacement are to be readily accessible, so an in-line unit whose cells cannot be reached fails that test regardless of what it removes.

Where gas safety law meets the ventilation system

Where the extract system serves as the flue for a gas appliance, yes, under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, and BS 6173 is how the industry meets it. In outline: the interlock cuts the gas, or prevents the appliances operating, when the ventilation cannot deliver an adequate airflow, and a Gas Safe registered engineer restores it. Which kitchens it applies to, why it covers the supply air as well as the extract, why no override is permitted however short-lived, how it is sensed and what makes one trip are set out in gas interlock in a commercial kitchen. IGEM/UP/19 Edition 2, published in July 2022, is the procedure BS 6173 refers to for carbon dioxide detection interlocking.

Smell and smoke at the outlet: nuisance law, planning and the EMAQ+ score

The council sets the level of odor control by a score, and the score is dominated by where the discharge is and who lives near it, not by how the kitchen cooks. Two legal routes meet at the outlet. Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, smoke from premises and smells from trade or business premises can be statutory nuisances; a council that finds one must serve an abatement notice under section 80, and breach can be prosecuted. Under planning law, the external duct and plant need permission even where the change of use no longer does, and the permission carries conditions. Westminster’s March 2021 guideline gives a representative shape. A new hot-food premises is expected to install a full-height discharge: at least 1 m above the eaves, or 1 m above a flat roof, and 1 m above any dormer window, ideally at chimney height or 1 m above the ridge, above any building within about 20 m, at an efflux velocity the note puts at usually at least 8 m/s. The alternative is an acceptable recirculation system with electric-only cooking, and a bespoke low-level scheme is the third option, to be justified by a risk assessment. For the reader asking whether an extractor exists that does not vent outside, that recirculation route is the answer, and it is narrow: electric cooking only and no UV, ozone or ESP, as set out under Section 25 on the DW/172 page.

That assessment is the odor risk score from Annex C of the Defra guidance of 2005, carried into the 2018 EMAQ+ update published by Ricardo after the Government withdrew the Defra text in 2017, and reproduced in the councils’ own notes. Four criteria are scored and added:

This table answers how a council scores an outlet; the rows are those printed in the Westminster and Epping Forest notes. It does not answer which equipment each level means, which sits in the EMAQ+ document and in the officer’s judgment. Westminster’s worked examples show the weight of the first row: a small Indian restaurant discharging into a courtyard scores 38 and needs a very high level of odor control; a rural pub discharging at the ridge with the nearest neighbor 25 m away scores 16 and needs a low level. For the courtyard case, as for a large burger restaurant discharging at the eaves within 20 m of homes, which scores 35, the note observes that raising the discharge to 1 m above the ridge lowers the score. What the councils then ask for is a file, not a promise: Epping Forest’s note wants the manufacturer’s data sheet for any electrostatic precipitator proposed, with the frequency and type of its maintenance, and for carbon the volume and mass of carbon, the dwell time at the design extract rate and the replacement frequency. The U.S. reading of solid fuel cooking is in solid fuel cooking exhaust requirements, and the U.S. outlet rules, written as fixed distances rather than a score, are in commercial kitchen exhaust termination requirements.

Fire and cleaning: TR19 Grease and the insurer

The cleaning interval in the UK is set by a measured grease deposit and by the insurance policy, with the published tables as the starting point. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 makes the operator, as the responsible person, assess and reduce the fire risk, which is also the duty behind the damper and fire-resisting ductwork question in fire dampers in a commercial kitchen extract. BESA’s TR19 Grease, first published in 2019 and now in its August 2020 issue, is the document fire authorities, insurers and cleaning contractors use for the grease extract. It sets starting intervals by hours of use, and the governing measure is not the date but the grease left behind, established by measurement and closed with a certificate. Which TR19 publication a contract actually means, the intervals themselves, what the 200 micron test measures and what a compliant certificate has to carry are read in full in the TR19 Grease cleaning standard. BESA notes that many policies now require adherence to TR19 and that failing to observe a proper regime can invalidate liability and property cover. DW/172 carries its own Table 12, graded by hours and grease production from 12 months down to 2 months, and adds weekly cleaning of baffle separators. An in-line electrostatic precipitator sits in the grease extract: its cells are cleaned on the manufacturer’s schedule and the record belongs in the same file as the duct certificates. The U.S. inspection intervals to set beside TR19 are in commercial kitchen exhaust cleaning requirements, and the suppression system a fire risk assessment brings in over fryers is covered, in its U.S. form, in commercial kitchen hood fire suppression requirements.

Which document proves what

A UK extract project is proved by a set of records that each answer one enforcer, and no product certificate answers more than one of them.

This table answers which record to hold for which enforcer. It does not answer what an outlet will smell like on a given evening; the neighbors and the officer decide that, which is why the discharge height carries more weight than any certificate.

Where an in-duct ESP fits the UK map

An in-duct electrostatic precipitator is a candidate for the particulate stage of a discharging system when visible smoke or grease carry-over is the problem; it is not the primary odor control, it does not lift a low-level discharge to acceptable on its own, and it has no place in the electric-only recirculation route. Those limits come from the documents above: DW/172 names the ESP for reducing smoke at the discharge and says it should not be considered a primary form of odor control; Epping Forest lists electrostatic precipitation among the abatement options and the score puts dispersion first; Westminster and DW/172 both exclude UV, ozone and ESPs from a recirculation system.

Inside those limits the unit has a defined role. On the particulate side, our in-duct units are washable stainless-steel collector cells in a duct-mounted housing, and in CMA-accredited third-party tests the LK units reached up to 97.6% grease removal at rated, evenly distributed airflow; that is a grease removal test, not a smoke measurement at an outlet and not an odor result. On the odor side, the ESP protects what follows it: DW/172 records that it removes moisture and extends the life of downstream disposable filters, and carbon lasts longer behind a particulate stage. On the fan side, a complete unit with its airflow distribution plate is rated at ≤150 Pa, the figure DW/172 clause 24.11 sends to the fan selection, worked through in commercial kitchen exhaust fan requirements.

Read against the map, that is three layers of acceptance, and passing one layer does not clear the next: the equipment’s own documents, which for our units are the CE certificate on the named series and the third-party grease removal report, with no EN 16282-8 report and no LPCB listing; the installation, after tested primary separators with access on both sides and a drain, with the fan interlock, the isolator and the surplus-ozone filtration following any UV-C; and the whole scheme meeting the council’s discharge condition and odor level, with the commissioning record and the cleaning file to show for it. The layers are worked through on the DW/172 page. For a smell complaint the route is UV-C or carbon, on the UV kitchen odor control page; for the clearest U.S. case where a control device is mandatory by rule, see charbroiler emissions regulations.

Where this guide stops

• England first, and councils vary. The Approved Document F, Use Classes and Fire Safety Order references are the English ones; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own building, planning and fire instruments. Westminster and Epping Forest are quoted because their notes are public; another council may set a different discharge rule or ask for different documents.
• The EMAQ+ document and penalties. The score is public through the councils; what each level of odor control means in equipment sits in the paid guidance and the consultant’s assessment. Fines are set by the courts and the statutes, and this guide gives none.
• Editions. DW/172 is the 2018 edition with the May 2024 addendum, BS 6173 the 2020 edition and IGEM/UP/19 the second edition of 2022 as of September 2026. TR19 Grease is the August 2020 issue, first published in 2019; check the edition your contract names.

Buyer record: what to have ready, what to ask for, what triggers a re-check

• Have ready: the address with the distance to the nearest sensitive window and the height of buildings within 20 m; the discharge point and its height against eaves and ridge; the menu, covers and hours; the fuel; the planning conditions or pre-application advice; the insurer’s cleaning clause; the appliance schedule with plan sizes for the DW/172 calculation.
• Ask each supplier for: the conformity certificate naming the model quoted; any EN 16282 assessment; the data sheet and maintenance frequency for your duty, in the form the council’s note asks for; the resistance at the design airflow; the access and drain drawing; a written statement of what the product does not hold.
• Re-score and re-check when: the menu or hours change; the discharge point moves; an abatement notice is served; UV-C or carbon is added or removed; the scheme changes to recirculation; or an edition of DW/172, BS 6173 or TR19 is reissued.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it a legal requirement to have an extractor fan in a commercial kitchen in the UK?

In practice, yes, for any kitchen that cooks. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 require employers to provide effective and suitable ventilation in every enclosed workplace, and the Health and Safety Executive describes the means, for a catering kitchen, as mechanical extraction through a canopy over the cooking appliances discharging to a safe location. Where the appliances are gas, the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 add that an appliance needing a flue must have one and that an extract system acting as that flue must be interlocked with the gas supply, with BS 6173 setting how. The assimilated food hygiene regulation 852/2004 requires adequate ventilation with filters and other cleanable parts readily accessible. None of these names a fan size; the form the extraction takes comes from HSE Catering Information Sheet 10 and the DW/172 specification, which Approved Document F points to.

How often does a commercial kitchen extraction system have to be cleaned in the UK?

No statute sets a number. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person to assess and manage the fire risk. The document fire authorities, insurers and cleaning contractors use for grease extract is BESA TR19 Grease. It was first published in 2019, and the current issue is dated August 2020. It sets starting intervals by hours of use, from every 3 months for heavy use down to every 12 months for light use, with the governing measure a grease deposit kept below a mean of 200 microns and verified after each clean with a certificate. DW/172 carries its own Table 12, which grades by grease production as well as hours and so does not always give the same interval; the two are compared side by side in our TR19 Grease guide. Insurance policies often write the interval into the policy and can require more than the tables.

Does a commercial kitchen extractor need planning permission in the UK?

Usually, for the external parts. Since September 2020 restaurants and cafes sit in Use Class E in England, so opening a hot-food business in a former shop no longer needs permission for the change of use itself, but external plant and ducting still do, and councils attach conditions on the discharge height, the efflux velocity and the level of odor control, set by an EMAQ+ style risk assessment. Conservation areas add planning considerations, and hot-food takeaways, which sit outside the use classes as sui generis, are treated separately. Check the local planning authority before the ductwork is designed, because the discharge point decides much of the rest.

What is the minimum extraction rate for a commercial kitchen in the UK?

There is no statutory figure. HSE Catering Information Sheet 10 says the extraction rate should be calculated from the information supplied with the appliances and take account of the air change rates required for kitchens. The method the industry uses is the DW/172 thermal convection calculation, appliance by appliance and fuel by fuel, with the coefficients and a worked example on the DW/172 page. The delivered rate is measured at the canopy at commissioning.

Specifying an extract system for a UK site?

Send us the discharge point and its height, the distance to the nearest sensitive receptor, the menu and hours, the fuel, the planning conditions if you have them, the calculated extract flow and the duct route with the position available for an in-line unit. Our team will come back with the model whose rated airflow band fits the flow, its resistance at that flow, the data sheet and maintenance frequency in the form a council’s note asks for, and a written statement of which documents the model carries and which it does not. The certificate scope by series is on our certificates page.

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References & further reading

1. Health and Safety Executive — Catering Information Sheet No 10, Ventilation in catering kitchens (2017), and No 23, Gas safety in catering and hospitality (2017). hse.gov.uk
2. HM Government — Approved Document F, Volume 2: Buildings other than dwellings, 2021 edition. gov.uk
3. Building Engineering Services Association — DW/172 Specification for Kitchen Ventilation Systems (2nd edition 2018, addendum May 2024) and TR19 Grease (first published 2019; current issue 1 August 2020). thebesa.com
4. Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers — IGEM/UP/19 Edition 2 (2022) and Supplement 1 (2024). igem.org.uk
5. GOV.UK — Statutory nuisances: how councils deal with complaints (Environmental Protection Act 1990). gov.uk
6. Westminster City Council — Prevention of odour and fume nuisance from commercial kitchen exhaust systems (March 2021). westminster.gov.uk
7. Epping Forest District Council — Commercial Kitchen Ventilation Guidance Note and Risk Assessment (March 2021). eppingforestdc.gov.uk
8. EMAQ (Ricardo) — Control of Odour and Noise from Commercial Kitchen Exhaust Systems (first issued 2018, updating the Defra guidance of 2005; the edition now sold is Version 3). emaq.uk
9. legislation.gov.uk — Assimilated Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs, Annex II. legislation.gov.uk
10. GOV.UK — Smoke control area rules; Placing UKCA or CE marked products on the market in Great Britain. gov.uk
11. BSI Knowledge — BS EN 16282-6:2020, Equipment for commercial kitchens, Components for ventilation in commercial kitchens, Part 6: Aerosol separators; the same series carries Part 8, Installations for treatment of aerosol (2017). knowledge.bsigroup.com
12. Polygee — kitchen exhaust filtration product range, certificates and third-party test reports. polygeeesp.com

Related reading

• DW/172 kitchen ventilation specification — the clauses and numbers behind the design column of the map, including Section 24 on pollution control.
• Commercial kitchen exhaust cleaning requirements — the NFPA 96 inspection intervals to read beside TR19 Grease.
• Commercial kitchen exhaust termination requirements — how the U.S. codes fix the outlet by distance where the UK scores it by risk.
• Charbroiler emissions regulations — the clearest U.S. case where a control device is mandatory by rule rather than by condition.
• Restaurant kitchen exhaust requirements in Singapore — the same agency-by-agency map for Singapore, where NEA asks for the roof and no visible smoke at the outlet.