- The Environment Agency launches eight-week consultationon
changes to variable monetary penalties.
- Changes will scrap the £250,000 cap on civil penalties and
significantly broaden their scope to target a wider range of
environmental offences.
- New enforcement powers will allow the Environment Agency to
apply penalties that are quicker and easier to enforce.
The Environment Agency has today (15 August) launched a consultation on
changes to variable monetary penalties – financial penalties
that can be imposed for certain environmental offences.
The consultation will run for eight weeks and will close on 8
October. The consultation seeks views on when penalties are used,
how they are calculated and the appeals process.
This follows the government
announcing that it will lift the current limit of £250,000
that the Environment Agency can impose directly on operators, as
well as expanding variable monetary penalties to cover more
offences under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales)
Regulations 2016.
This offers regulators a quicker method of enforcement than
lengthy and costly criminal prosecutions – although the most
serious cases will continue to be taken through criminal
proceedings.
The changes will ensure regulators have the right tools to
drive compliance across a range of sectors, strengthening
enforcement and holding all who hold environmental permits to
greater account – from energy and water companies to waste
operators and incinerators.
All future environmental fines and penalties from water companies
will be put into a new Water Restoration Fund, which will be
re-invested back into the environment by supporting local groups
and community-led schemes.
Environment Agency Executive Director John Leyland
said:
These new enforcement powers will be an extra tool in our armoury
to hold polluters to account.
They will act as a further deterrent - boosting compliance
across a range of sectors and helping us provide stronger
protection to the environment, communities and nature.
Minister for Environmental Quality and Resilience said:
Polluters must always pay – by lifting the cap on these
sanctions, we are simultaneously toughening our enforcement tools
and expanding where regulators can use them.
This consultation builds on government action to increase
investment, toughen enforcement and tighten regulation and will
make sure there is a proportionate punishment for operators that
breach their permits and harm our rivers, seas and precious
habitats.
There are clear provisions in the Sentencing Council guidelines
that will ensure the level of penalties levied are proportionate
to the degree of environmental harm and culpability. These
include safeguards to ensure the operator’s ability to pay, the
size of the operators, and the degree of responsibility and harm,
amongst others – all of which are taken into account when
imposing a penalty. The penalties will only be applied where it
is shown beyond reasonable doubt that an offence has occurred.
Notes to editors:
- The Environment Agency has launched this consultation
because, following the government confirming the changes, the
Environment Agency will amend its Enforcement and Sanctions
Policy to provide detail on how the new powers will be used and
how the penalties will be calculated. The Environment Agency is
legally required to consult on proposed changes to their policy
and give greater clarity to those who may be affected by them.
