Civil sanctions for environmental offences England and Wales

The Environment Agency in England and Wales will start using new enforcement powers, called civil sanctions, from 4 January 2011. Civil sanctions can be used against a business committing certain environmental offences, relating to harm to water resources, hazardous waste and packaging waste, as an alternative to prosecution. The new civil sanctions the environmental regulator can use against a business committing certain environmental offences include:

·         Compliance notice - written notice to take steps to ensure that an offence does not continue or recur.

·         Restoration notice - written notice to restore harm caused by non-compliance.

·         Enforcement undertaking - voluntary agreement by business to take corrective action to make up for non-compliance.

·         Fixed monetary penalty - a low level penalty for minor offences fixed at £100 for an individual and £300 for a company.

·         Variable monetary penalty - a monetary penalty for more serious offences with a maximum of £250,000.

·         Stop notice - written notice to stop an activity which is causing harm.

Legal action will be taken against anyone not paying monetary penalties, whilst anyone not complying with restoration notices or stop notices will usually be prosecuted.