Defra consults on easier pollution prosecutions and ‘speeding ticket’ fines

(by Karma Loveday)

Defra is consulting on enacting Water (Special Measures) Act powers to bolster the Environment Agency’s ability to penalise pollution. 

The consultation, open until 3 December, proposed to:

• Allow the Environment Agency (EA) to use a lower civil standard of proof, instead of criminal, for minor to moderate environmental offences, and set a cap at either £350,000 or £500,000 for penalties issued to the civil standard.

• Introduce new automatic penalties – “like a speeding ticket” – for specific and obvious breaches without the need for lengthy investigations. These would cover matters such as failure to report a significant pollution incident within four hours; failure to report Event Duration Monitoring data monthly; failure to return abstraction data within 28 days of a request;  or the use of an emergency overflow more than three times in one year. The consultation also sought views on whether the new automatic penalty should be set at £10,000, £15,000 or £20,000.

Defra noted that the EA currently struggles to impose financial penalties for frequent, minor and moderate offending because it needs to prove an offence to the same high legal standard used in criminal courts.

Modelling, based on water company performance in previous years, suggested the changes could cost the sector between £50m and £67m annually. This would need to be borne by owners not customers. However, Defra said: “The actual cost is likely to be much lower as the policy is designed to drive effective and lasting behaviour change.”

The changes would sit alongside the EA’s existing enforcement tools.