Speech by Joan Ruddock MP at the Local Government Association Environmental Enforcement Conference, London - 7 November 2007
Good morning and I’m delighted to be here today.
Last month I was here talking to you about Environmental Leadership. In that speech, I focussed on the importance of central government and local authorities working together to provide vision and leadership to local communities in the fight against climate change.
Today I want to speak to you about the closely related issue of how to make environmental enforcement effective. Effective enforcement is an important part of what we have to do to change behaviour, to promote compliance and achieve the better environmental outcomes we’re all looking for.
As you know only too well, much harm is caused to the local environment and local communities by fly tipping, abandoned vehicles, graffiti, damage to amenities, and breach of Pollution Prevention Control Permits.
Our communities have indicated that these issues are high priorities for them. As their elected representatives and public servants we all have the responsibility to show leadership and I cannot stress strongly enough the importance of your role in delivering change.
Of course some important steps have already been taken and progress has been made. But I want to talk also about possible future environmental enforcement.
The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 was a big step forward. The powers in the Act are there to help you improve local environmental quality through tackling illegal waste disposal and pollution offences that spoil the pride and pleasure people should be able to take in where they live.
Recent statistics show that enforcement action has increased substantially and I am pleased that LAs are making real improvements in this area. Effective enforcement goes hand in hand with good communication to educate and increase awareness
Sheffield City Council, for example, have carried out high visibility educational work on Saturday mornings, concentrating on student areas where waste was being left out at the wrong times. This has extended into deterrent work at the end of term when students were vacating their rented homes. Being able to understand this unique audience informed the introduction of a ‘Red bag’ scheme which offered students additional legitimate refuse collection at the end of term.
So we are on the right track, but we need to maintain momentum. The challenge is for you to know the issues in your areas in the way that Sheffield has indicated and to identify resources and budgets to tackle them. Effective enforcement goes hand in hand with good communication to educate and increase awareness
But simply putting more resources into issuing more fixed penalty notices and warning letters isn’t effective on its own – enforcement is vital. The best authorities have effective enforcement services which achieve payment levels well over 75%, and in some cases over 90%. The effective use of fixed penalty notices in these authorities negates the need to take costly and time consuming cases to court.
An enforcement strategy that reflects an understanding of your area means you can implement a holistic approach to enforcement, not just tackling environmental harm after it happens but preventing it through proactive and systematic intervention strategies.
An enforcement strategy needs to be built on data that enables you to target where you take action. Information from individual local environmental quality survey reports, Flycapture data and management information through the collection of Best Value Performance Indicator 199 surveys, can help in developing those strategies.
I am delighted that all LAs have now adopted Flycapture and have been working well to collect and record data. Some are also using this management information in innovative ways to help tackle fly-tipping. But you can see from the data that LAs have recently provided, that fly-tipping has increased by 5%.
I know it is challenging but I would like to see next year’s Flycapture data showing levels of fly-tipping going down.
Another example of an increasingly common problem is cigarette litter. Undoubtedly the indoor ban has produced outdoor hotspots. You’ll know where they are and in these areas you should focus more resources on cleansing; engaging business and encouraging provision of cigarette bins. Education and taking enforcement action where necessary should also be part of the package.
Local authorities who are designing their strategies with changing behaviour in mind are already achieving successes, and I do applaud those actions.
For example, Milton Keynes Council have used research to pinpoint hotspots for use of covert surveillance. They have also extended the opening hours of their waste and recycling centres and all this has contributed to a 35% reduction in fly-tipping incidents for 2006/07. An intelligence-led strategy could bring every authority this kind of success.
There are also dividends to be had from joined up thinking across each authority. These problems are usually interlinked – the same people will often be committing offences and the intervention strategies to prevent them will often be similar.
And joined up enforcement need not stop at the single local authority level – in Buckinghamshire authorities are taking a county-wide approach to environmental enforcement, recognising the strategic advantages this brings.
Local authorities such as Breckland Council in Norfolk are finding that better communication can also bring results on the ground. Breckland have been improving their working links with local Magistrates and also training their contractors in collecting and preserving evidence.
They have achieved four successful prosecutions since April, resulting in over 600 hours of community service and £4,000 in costs. They have also achieved a 42% reduction in fly-tipping for 2006-07.
So, enforcement strategies are important documents to be agreed with key stakeholders including Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships; to be co-ordinated with Local Area Agreements; and to be reviewed and driven by senior officers.
Working together, we need a national enforcement system that is fit for purpose, proportionate and effective by design. As I have said a lot of important steps have been taken, but there is still scope for more to be achieved.
I want to set out some of the things we are considering doing on enforcement matters over the next two years and to share a possible vision with you.
The recommendations from the Hampton and Macrory reports provide an important focus for the Fairer and Better Environmental Enforcement Project which Defra is taking forward with regulators and LACoRS with the aim of improving environmental enforcement.
In particular, Defra is considering with stakeholders how the kind of measures suggested by the Macrory report could apply in the environmental context.
One possible approach being considered is to establish a new statutory framework that would make clear what environmental sanctions are supposed to achieve. This framework would be designed to promote a more systematic, but simple, basis for the serious consideration the courts give to sentencing.
Environmental enforcement and sanctions would set out explicitly and routinely to put right environmental damage; make amends to adversely affected communities; remove financial gain from non-compliance; and punish culpable non-compliance.
Also under consideration is the possibility of a new tier of civil sanctions for environmental regulators.
These would be an additional tool for regulators who show they are working to the Hampton principles of good regulation, set out in the Compliance Code.
The new civil powers would be established using the enabling powers in the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill.
Importantly, the Bill also includes the possibility for regulators to accept a voluntary but enforceable agreement from operators who are willing to voluntarily put things right without the need for stronger sanctions. Such enforcement undertakings could support a culture of greater co-operation between regulators and responsible operators.
These additional civil tools would allow for cases currently being prosecuted to be dealt with administratively by regulators, with appeals going to an independent tribunal. This would potentially lead to significant time and cost savings for businesses, regulators and Courts.
Taken together, the new enabling powers in the RES Bill, and ongoing work on improving the environmental enforcement system overall, would give regulators a better graduated set of sanctions. This would allow them to capture different types of non compliant behaviour more effectively and to better address risk.
However, these are early days and there is much work and consultation to be done, with local authorities and with others. We want to work with you to ensure any specific proposals that may emerge are robustly supported by evidence, and will be properly monitored and evaluated.
The challenge to local government is to look for the opportunities in a new more proportionate system of this kind.
But the Defra Fairer and Better Environmental Enforcement Project is only one part of the work being taken forward under the Government’s wider Better Regulation Agenda.
I am aware that many local authorities are already closely engaged in ongoing work to improve compliance and reduce the burdens on business.
If we are to continue that good progress already made towards improving local environments and making a better quality of life a reality then it is crucial we get things right on the ground and that means sending a clear signal that we will enforce environmental laws in a timely, effective and proportionate way.
Over the course of today, you will hear from a range of speakers about environmental enforcement issues. I hope that this will produce a lively debate about how to get the biggest impact possible from enforcement as part of effective light-touch regulation.
Some questions you might want to consider:
Are you being strategic enough?
Are you talking to all the right stakeholders?
Do you have the systems in place to capture the information you need to be strategic?
Are you putting in the resources to make your strategy a success?
And a further challenge – what opportunities can you find in the new ideas for civil sanctions that would help you work better with local business, and achieve a bigger impact?
Tackling environmental crime and other forms of antisocial behaviour as we know is vital to the health and wellbeing of our communities. You will know it as local councillors and council officers, I know it as a Minister. As you respond to your local people so we in central government will respond to you to find the measures and give you the tools to achieve success.
Page published:
13 November 2007