Fairer and Better Environmental Enforcement Project
This new project aims to build on the work started by the Government’s Review of Enforcement in Environmental Regulation and from Professor Macrory’s recommendations which offer ways to achieve more proportionate, transparent and consistent sanctions (criminal and administrative).
The key aims of the project are to:
- Develop proposals for primary legislation that will set out the “purposes” of environmental sentencing (as recommended by the Review of Enforcement in Environmental Regulation)
- Help to produce a paper on possible supporting sentencing guidelines for consideration by the Sentencing Guidelines Council Secretariat
- Develop proposals to introduce new administrative sanctions that will give environmental regulators a more “dynamic” toolkit
A new framework of purposes
A new framework of purposes, akin to that for general criminal sentencing could provide for more transparent consistent and proportionate sentencing in environmental cases. It could also provide a broad rationale for proportionate and consistent application of proposed administrative sanctions (below). The purposes can be listed as:
- Removing financial gain from non – compliance
- Making good any environmental damage
- Making amends to adversely affected communities (whilst drawing a sensible boundary with the role of the civil courts)
- Exposing and punishing culpability where it exists – that is serious negligence or intent not to comply.
New Sentencing Guidelines
In criminal cases, the new framework (referred above) may need to be complemented by sentencing guidelines which would be ultimately a matter for consideration by the Sentencing Advisory Panel and the Sentencing Guidelines Council. This is consistent with the findings of the Macrory report.
New Administrative Sanctions
A graduated set of sanctions in environmental cases and supporting powers to enable regulators and courts to more clearly delineate less serious cases from the worst cases of non-compliance involving culpability. These administrative sanctions would be applied by the regulator. In developing proposals to introduce new administrative sanctions, the project will aim to make full use of the enabling powers to be introduced by the part 2 of the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill which is currently under consultation.
Page published: 4 July 2007