Defra scraps the cap on civil penalties for pollution

Defra has confirmed it has laid new secondary legislation to toughen up pollution penalties.

This will remove the cap on civil penalties for pollution offences altogether, and widen the range of offences to which the penalties can be applied.

At present, the variable monetary penalties that the Environment Agency and Natural England can impose are capped at £250,000. By making these unlimited, the regulators will be able to avoid taking all but the most serious cases through criminal proceedings, which are often long and costly.

Defra is also introducing unlimited variable monetary penalties as a civil sanction for offences under the Environmental Permitting (England & Wales) Regulations 2016, which it said will ensure regulators have the right tools to drive compliance across a range of sectors and breaches.

Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said: “Polluters must always pay. We are scrapping the cap on civil penalties and significantly broadening their scope to target a much wider range of offences – from breaches of storm overflow permits to the reckless disposal of hazardous waste.”Defra said provisions in the Sentencing Council guidelines 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 operator, and the degree of responsibility and harm, amongst others – all of which are taken into account when imposing a penalty.”

The legislative amendments will need to be approved by both Houses of Parliament before coming into force.

Since 2015, the EA’s prosecutions against water companies have secured fines of over £150m. In 2022, the Agency concluded nine prosecutions against water and sewerage companies with fines of more than £4m.

Under the Government’s new Plan for Water, future environmental fines and penalties from water companies will be re-invested in a new Water Restoration Fund rather than going to the Treasury. The fund will pay for on-the-ground improvements to water quality, and support local groups and community-led schemes which help to protect waterways.

Water UK noted the new rules will apply to all sectors equally. A spokesperson said: “We welcome this announcement. It is right that regulators have all the powers they need when things go wrong.”

The Rivers Trust welcomed to change, but said more will be needed to clean up rivers. Chief executive Mark Lloyd commented: “We would like to see both industry and regulators being more ambitious in their environmental standards and holding polluters to account to drive improvements. To really achieve healthier rivers, we need better monitoring and transparency over data, to combat misinformation and so that better decisions are available to help our rivers. Everyone involved needs to pull together to tackle the challenges and focus on scaling up nature-based solutions to deliver the greatest benefits for our wider environment, as well as clear governance structures to ensure value for money.”