Unlimited Financial Penalties for Environmental Offences – How Your Business Should React
Last year, both DEFRA (the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) and EA (Environment Agency) announced that they were scrapping the £250,000 limit on fines for environmental offences, instead imposing fines on a case-by-case, or, limitless basis. They are also expanding the remit of punishable offences ensuring ‘polluters always pay’. So, with higher fines on the table, and more obstacles to jump through to avoid them, how can your business account for new legislation?
Who are these agencies? And what are their fines based upon?
Both DEFRA and EA are government agencies, aimed at protecting the environment, partially by regulating business activity. EA and DEFRA believe in “creating better places for people and wildlife” and “improving and protecting the environment.” This means that this new legislation isn’t advice, but government-sanctioned and therefore holds legal weight.
These fines will be issued in accordance to the size and balance sheet of a business, known as a Variable Monetary Penalty (VMP). The degree of responsibility is also taken into account. Further considerations include the level of impact, or harm that is caused to the environment. These fines were primarily introduced in response to those polluting the UK’s waterways, although they can affect any number of businesses.
What offences can be punished?
The offences that may now be punished include:
- Permit breaches from power stations or manufacturing industries contributing to air pollution
- Illegal waste offences
- Illegal discharges to water
- Permit breaches from site discharging into rivers and seas.
How can you protect your business?
The first thing to do in response to these changes is to look inwardly – assess the risks and how compliant you are. If there are red flags, these should be addressed immediately. However, even if you are operating sustainably, there are always ways to improve your environmental management.
Striving for this improvement, through making genuine changes will help to futureproof your business, you can be leaps ahead of future standards and regulation ensuring your business structure doesn’t have to be altered with every new regulation. This could be done through adopting renewable energy, minimising rubbish output, or working with a reliable waste management company, to ensure that your waste is handled effectively and properly.
Adopting these practices will help you to follow DEFRA and EA’s new changes, as well as having a greater effect upon the environment. This will help toward your businesses ESG and CSR, gaining favour amongst customers and stakeholders.
The variable fining system could, if not reacted to, lead to hefty sanctions being dealt out. However, assessing your own practices, and adopting a proactive mindset, welcoming introductions such as clean energy and waste management, will help your business to avoid these punishments and adapt to future changes and legislations.
