Pledge to decriminalise environment offences

[Mr T.]

Perhaps a retrogressive step?


Pledge to decriminalise environment offences
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
(Filed: 29/11/2004)

Proposals to decriminalise a series of environmental offences such as fly-tipping, water pollution and unlicensed water abstraction will be unveiled at a Government conference tomorrow.

A third-term Labour government would bring forward a Bill to improve environmental regulation, Harriet Harman, the solicitor general, will tell the conference.

Such a Bill has lain on the shelf since Labour first made it a promise before the 1997 election.

Under the proposals, which are likely to be controversial, the Environment Agency would be able to apply civil penalties or fines for routine pollution offences according to a tariff based on the turnover of a company or a fixed sum for an individual.

The agency would have total discretion as to the level of fine that was levied and the offender would not have to go to court.

Experts say the right of appeal to a court would be needed under such a system, but, controversially, ministers do not appear to be proposing one at this stage.

The civil penalties could be used to enforce some of the new burdens that companies face, such as meeting recycling quotas. They could also apply in cases regarded as routine, such as when chemical firms exceed pollution limits by small amounts.

At present, environmental offences fall under the criminal law, which can mean long delays and high costs for local groups taking waste tip operators, for instance, to court.

Elliot Morley, the environment minister, said: "The [civil penalties] approach is more flexible and designed to fit the penalty more to the crime. It frees resources for criminal prosecutions while removing the burden from respectable companies that make a low level breach of regulations and raises the penalties for people who carry out deliberate environmental crimes."

[chrisch]

mmm... tough one. Could be good or bad.

One thing's for sure unless there is some resource for actually catching people it will change jack.

Chris