The Environment Agency has this month announced that it has used civil sanctions to enforce packaging waste legislation, by accepting its first enforcement undertaking from a company instead of prosecuting them.
Civil sanctions are essentially civil penalties imposed by regulators for regulatory non-compliance, as an alternative to prosecution through the courts. The Environment Agency, as well as Natural England, has the power to impose such sanctions in respect of environmental offences in England. Though not strictly a sanction, they can also accept enforcement undertakings whereby a promise is given by an individual or a company to take actions to make sure the non-compliant behaviour is not completed or repeated, and to restore the position as far as possible to that of before the offence was committed. This could either take the form of clean up of contamination, something to benefit those affected by the offence or through compensation.
The Environment Agency confirmed that it accepted a voluntary enforcement undertaking from Invensys Plc to pay £21,000 in respect of packaging waste offences that the company had identified and reported itself, as an alternative to prosecution. This sum is intended to fund environmental improvements in local communities, including a recycling initiative by North Tyneside Council, as well as paying for the Agency investigation and monitoring.
In fact, the Environment Agency has received around 30 offers for further enforcement undertakings from other organisations in relation to breaches of environmental law, including offers to set up recycling awareness schemes, donations to environmental charities and funding for environmental school projects.
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