Duty To Notify Under Proposed Environmental Damage Regulations

In February 2008, the Government (Defra) launched a

consultation on the draft Environmental Damage (Prevention and

Remediation) Regulations for both England and Wales. The

consultation ends on 27 May 2008. The Regulations will

transpose the provisions of the EU Environmental Liability

Directive into law in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern

Ireland will be consulting separately on their draft

regulations).

The Directive should have been transposed into law by the UK

by April 2007, but it has proved difficult to dovetail the

Directive with existing environment protection regimes. The

Regulations will be based on the 'polluter pays'

principle. A principal aim is to prevent environment damage by

the operator identifying imminent environment threats and

proactively putting in place appropriate pollution prevention

measures. This article focuses on a new duty imposed by the

Regulations to notify competent authorities in certain

circumstances.

To date, unless required by the provisions of a permit,

there is no legal duty to inform any competent authority of any

polluting incident. These Regulations place new notification

obligations on the operator, in specified circumstances, to

inform the competent authority of environment threat and harm.

The Regulations will only apply to damage caused or damage

threatened after the Regulations come into force (i.e.

prospective pollution and not historic contamination). Defra

aims to bring the Regulations into force by December 2008.

To view the article in full, please see

below:

Full Article

In February 2008, the Government (Defra) launched a

consultation on the draft Environmental Damage (Prevention and

Remediation) Regulations for both England and Wales. The

consultation ends on 27 May 2008. The Regulations will

transpose the provisions of the EU Environmental Liability

Directive into law in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern

Ireland will be consulting separately on their draft

regulations).

The Directive should have been transposed into law by the UK

by April 2007, but it has proved difficult to dovetail the

Directive with existing environment protection regimes. The

Regulations will be based on the 'polluter pays'

principle. A principal aim is to prevent environment damage by

the operator identifying imminent environment threats and

proactively putting in place appropriate pollution prevention

measures. This article focuses on a new duty imposed by the

Regulations to notify competent...