{"id":115445,"date":"2023-07-12T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T06:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/polluters-must-pay-government-to-remove-cap-on-fines-imposed-by-environmental-regulators\/"},"modified":"2023-07-12T09:00:44","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T06:00:44","slug":"polluters-must-pay-government-to-remove-cap-on-fines-imposed-by-environmental-regulators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/news\/polluters-must-pay-government-to-remove-cap-on-fines-imposed-by-environmental-regulators\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Polluters must pay\u2019: Government to remove cap on fines imposed by environmental regulators"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\" data-trp-original-action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115445\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"trp-form-language\" value=\"en\"\/><\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\nCompanies that breach environmental regulations could soon see a major increase in the fines they face, after the government today announced new legislation to remove the cap on civil monetary penalties that can be imposed by environmental regulators. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said that following a consultation that secured widespread public support the current limit of \u00a3250,000 on the variable monetary penalties that can be imposed by the Environment Agency and Natural England will be lifted.<\/p>\n<p>The move will give the agencies the ability to impose significantly higher fines on polluting operators without the need to go through lengthy and costly criminal prosecutions. The reforms will also widen the range of offences that can be hit with civil penalties. However, the government stressed the most serious breaches of environmental rules would continue to face the risk of criminal proceedings.<\/p>\n<p>The changes come after the government has faced fierce criticism from green groups, MPs, and the public over its failure to halt increasing levels of water pollution and waste crime in recent years. &#8220;Polluters must always pay,&#8221; said Environment Secretary Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Coffey. &#8220;We are scrapping the cap on civil penalties and significantly broadening their scope to target a much wider range of offences &#8211; from breaches of storm overflow permits to the reckless disposal of hazardous waste. It builds on action being taken right across government to stand up for our environment &#8211; tackling pollution, protecting delicate ecosystems and enhancing nature.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Alan Lovell, chair of the Environment Agency, welcomed the new powers, predicting that they should become &#8216;an important deterrent&#8217;. &#8220;We regularly prosecute companies and individuals through criminal proceedings, but these new powers will allow us to deliver penalties that are quicker and easier to enforce, even though the most serious cases will continue to go to court,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That should be an important deterrent &#8211; boosting compliance across a range of sectors, driving down pollution and safeguarding the ecology and prosperity of our natural world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The new powers will be enacted through amendments to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016, the regime under which the majority of Environment Agency investigations take place. The reforms deliver on a proposal featured in the government&#8217;s new Plan for Water, which was released earlier this year. Campaign groups have long argued the fines faced by water companies for pollution incidents were too low to incentivise increased investment in the infrastructure and practices required to curb pollution risks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;By lifting the cap on these sanctions, we are simultaneously toughening our enforcement tools and expanding where regulators can use them,&#8221; said Environment Minister Rebecca Pow. &#8220;This will deliver a proportionate punishment for operators that breach their permits and harm our rivers, seas and precious habitats.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The government said that while the cap on fines would be removed regulators would still have to comply with Sentencing Council guidelines that will ensure penalties are proportionate to the degree of environmental harm and culpability. These include safeguards to ensure the operator&#8217;s ability to pay, the size of the operator, and the degree of responsibility and harm, among others issues, are all taken into account when imposing a penalty.<\/p>\n<p>Ruth Chambers, senior fellow at think tank Green Alliance, said the prospect of &#8220;faster and tougher enforcement on polluters is long overdue&#8221;. Regulators must now make fearless and full use of these enhanced powers to tackle pollution, which is destroying our rivers and trashing communities,&#8221; she said. &#8220;But the fines must also be directed towards environmental improvement and bolstering enforcement bodies &#8211; not lost in the Treasury&#8217;s coffers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The move is likely to be welcomed by environmental campaign groups, which have long argued for higher fines and more robust enforcement mechanisms. However, concerns remain over the government&#8217;s plans to rollback a number of EU-derived environmental rules, including reports this week Ministers are considering diluting nutrient neutrality rules that aim to reduce the impact of new building developments on water quality.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessgreen.com\/news\/4119921\/polluters-pay-government-remove-cap-fines-imposed-environmental-regulators\">Euronews<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/vaufien\/polluters-must-pay-government-to-remove-cap-on-fines-imposed-by-environmental-regulators\/\">\u2018Polluters must pay\u2019: Government to remove cap on fines imposed by environmental regulators<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[10696,10697,10698,606,607,608],"class_list":["post-115445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-cap-fine","tag-must-pay","tag-polluters","tag-vau_viikkokatsaus","tag-vauen","tag-vaufien"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}