Does the company have the required environmental permits?

Answer yet to be determined: permit is not a VSME database question

The VSME basic module does not explicitly ask for a list of permit numbers. This question typically appears in a customized or supplementary questionnaire from the customer, based on environmental legislation, and not in the standardized part of the basic module. Therefore the label here is "yet to be determined": the supply chain file has no automatic source that can fill this question with a definitive yes or no.

In practice this means you must check which environmental permit or environmental notification applies to the location(s) your customer is referring to. If you have those permits, you can answer yes with the permit as evidence. If a permit is missing, or an application is still pending, then no or "pending" is the factually correct answer — even if that is not the answer your customer hopes to read. Do not answer based on assumptions; permit status differs by location and changes due to renovation, expansion or new legislation. This question is often linked to questions that are included in the file, such as whether locations are situated in or adjacent to a protected natural area — as this partly determines which permit regime applies.

Where that is established: outside the basic module indicators

The EFRAG VSME standard describes in the basic module the environmental indicators around energy, emissions, waste and water, but permit status is not a separately defined data point there. As soon as a customer poses this question anyway, it falls outside the direct scope of the basic module and you must treat it as a customized question from that customer, separate from the other fields such as total energy consumption per year. Check per location which permit is required and whether it is current, before you finalize an answer.