More effective environmental sanctions proposed

The three-month consultation launched this week (July 21), entitled ‘Proposals for fairer and better environmental enforcement', outlines moves which would see the Environment Agency impose civil sanctions, including fixed penalty notices, for offences where prosecution may not be the most effective remedy.

This would alter the way waste management and recycling companies are reprimanded for offences such as failing to comply with an environmental permit or failing to submit monitoring data, and comes as part of plans to allow regulators more flexibility to respond in ways that are “proportionate to the seriousness of non-compliance”.

Changes to the way environmental crime is enforced would affect businesses in the sector, as well as landowners, occupiers, public sector groups, and also regulators and the justice system.

Policy 

The proposals would build on existing, limited civil sanctions being used by the Environment Agency under the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions (RES) Act 2008, and allow the Agency to impose sanctions in accordance with their own enforcement policy and its more detailed guidance.

The consultation, which closes on October 14 2009, seeks views on a number of approaches based around the application of different sanctions, from monetary fines to a range of enforcement notices.

The document outlines that a fixed monetary penalty would be issued as a “relatively low level fine” fixed by legislation that the regulator may impose for a specified minor offence, while a ‘Variable Monetary Penalty' would be applied to more serious offences where the regulator decides prosecution is not in the public interest.

The enforcement notices outlined in the document include: a written Stop Notice ordering the cessation of an activity; a Compliance Notice, requiring a company to take steps to comply with the law; and, a Restoration Notice, a notice issued for an operator to restore harm caused by non-compliance.

The consultation also outlines plans for businesses to be given the opportunity to remedy offences themselves by means of an Enforcement Undertaking, which regulators could choose to accept instead of prosecution of sanctions.