Business groups have welcomed new civil powers given to environmental enforcement agencies that should lead to fewer criminal prosecutions of businesses.
The range of new
civil powers have been given to the
Environment Agency and
Natural England under the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008. They will increase the options available to
regulators and provide an alternative to criminal prosecutions. Sanctions will now include fixed and variable monetary penalties and compliance notices and will avoid long and costly criminal prosecutions.
Defra, which announced the new powers this week, said the changes reflected the fact that the majority of non-compliance by
businesses was “unintentional”.
Fairer environmental enforcement regimeToday the UK’s leading business organisation, the
CBI, said the changes should make environmental law enforcement fairer on businesses.
“These changes [will give] regulators a variety of other sanctions to criminal prosecution, which should ensure that penalties applied are proportionate to an offence,” said Rhian Kelly, the CBI’s head of Climate Change.
Manufacturers’ organisation the
EEF and the
National Farmer’s Union (NFU) also supported the new powers.
Gareth Stace, head of Climate & Environment Policy at EEF, said: “We support the Government’s aims to create a fairer, more effective and more proportionate enforcement regime. Defra’s Fairer and Better Environmental Enforcement (FBEE) project has actively engaged with manufacturers on the introduction of these new civil powers for environmental non-compliance and has done a successful job in addressing a number of manufacturer concerns. We remain encouraged that the transition of civil sanctions from legislature to regulator can now be fairly and equitably applied.”
Andrew Clark, head of Policy Services at the NFU added: “The availability of sanctions other than just criminal prosecution in dealing with businesses which do not comply with the law is long overdue."
Kelly voiced a word of caution, however, saying there were still some “important issues” to be addressed, “such as how inspectors will apply these powers consistently across the UK”.
Announcing the new powers, this week, environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, said the majority of businesses were law abiding and the new system would make an effective alternative to prosecution. “The Environment Agency and Natural England, the first bodies to be given these powers, will have access to flexible and proportionate sanctions that will strengthen the protection of the environment and human health when tackling businesses who break the law,” he said.
Related News:
Environmental Regulations NewsGreen Business NewsRelated Links:
www.naturalengland.org.ukwww.environment-agency.gov.ukwww.cbi.org.ukwww.eef.org.ukwww.nfuonline.com