Although its counterpart in England and Wales, the Environment Agency, has brought 132 companies to court for packaging waste offences in the last three years alone, SEPA has only now secured its first prosecution under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) 1997.
Walter Black Ltd., of Cambuslang, near Glasgow became the first Scottish company to be prosecuted under the Regulations. The company pleaded guilty to the charge of failing to carry out the necessary recovery and recycling of packaging waste and also failing to certify whether those obligations had been met. The company was fined a total of 1,000 for the offences.
By comparison, the Environment Agency – the regulator for England and Wales – has seen average fines increasing from just over 2,000 in 2000 to over 8,000 in 2002, with individual fines reaching as high as 98,000.
But Karen Riddick, who heads SEPA's producer responsibility unit, told letsrecycle.com that since less than 5% of producers in the UK are based in Scotland, the number of cases put forward for prosecution by SEPA is reasonably proportional to that pursued by the Environment Agency.
Fourth case
Ms Riddick pointed out that Walter Black was in fact the fourth case to be put forward for prosecution, but that the previous three were not proceeded with.
She said: “The lack of prosecutions in Scotland over the last four years has led some to suggest that SEPA has not enforced the Regulations rigorously. However, the Scottish legal system does not allow SEPA to take its own cases to court as is the case with the Environment Agency in England and Wales.
“All criminal cases in Scotland must be reported to the Procurator Fiscal and it is they who decide whether a case should or should not be heard. The recent prosecution was the fourth case put forward to the Procurator Fiscal since 1998 but the first three were not pursued by the court.
She added: “SEPA is not entitled to be given specific reasons for disposal of a case in these circumstances.”
Inspections
This lack of transparency in the legal system is seen by some in the industry as a real problem in preventing free riders in the packaging waste sector in Scotland. But SEPA has stressed that it spends “considerable” resources in ensuring that producers are less likely to commit offences in the first place.
“This is done through on-site assistance with data forms at the time of registration, regular freeloader checks and an intense period of producer specific problem resolution prior to the deadline for submission of Certificates of Compliance,” Ms Riddick explained. “These activities are all carried out above and beyond the regular compliance inspections of at least one third of registered producers.”
SEPA hopes that the recent court findings will help to secure prosecutions for a number of other cases that are to be reported to the Procurator Fiscal during the course of this year.
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