New publications this month:
DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS (DEFRA)
Enabling a Natural Capital Approach (ENCA): Guidance
This document supports the application of the natural capital framework, including valuation of the environment and application to project or policy appraisal.
A separate web page provides guidance for policy and decision makers on ENCA.
ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
Dispose of waste to landfill
Guidance is provided on the disposal of waste to landfill, including on waste characterisation, sampling and analysis.
Abstractions that require a licence
The deadline for sites that previously undertook abstractions under an exemption that now require a licence for these operations has been extended until 30 June 2020.
Template fire prevention plan for environmental permits
This document has been prepared to support permitted sites in preparing fire prevention plans.
Waste operations and installations: assessing and scoring environmental permit compliance
This policy paper has been updated to reflect that permit holders may challenge any part of the compliance assessment report form within 28 days of receiving it.
Regulatory Position Statements (RPS)
FORESTRY COMMISSION
Register as a Professional Operator to issue Plant Passports
Under the Plant Health Regulation (EU) 2016/2031, organisations will need to register as a ‘Professional Operator’ to import or export wood, wood products and bark or get approval to issue Plant Passports or apply the ISPM15 mark.
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY (BEIS)
Capacity Market (Amendment) Rules 2020
Updated rules for the capacity market regime have been published. These are of interest to existing and potential participants in the scheme.
WELSH GOVERNMENT
Fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for environmental offences: guidance
Guidance is provided on the use of and maximum fines under the fixed penalty notice regime in Wales for environmental offences.
Donations made by cleaning products supplier after it failed to meet its packaging waste responsibilities
Muc-Off, a Dorset-based manufacturer of cleaning products for cars and bikes, has entered into an enforcement undertaking with a charity.
The enforcement undertaking was proposed and agreed after the Environment Agency found the company had failed to meets its packaging waste obligations under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007.
The Environment Agency identified that Muc-Off Ltd had saved £5,899.72 by failing to register with a packaging recovery scheme for the years 2012-2016 inclusive.
Enforcement undertakings are voluntary offers from offenders to address the cause and effect of their offending. If accepted, an enforcement undertaking becomes a legally binding agreement between the Environment Agency and the offender and replaces the need for any other civil or criminal sanction, such as prosecution.
Breach
Muc-off Ltd admitted two offences under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007 including failing to register and failing to take reasonable steps to recover and recycle waste packaging.
Enforcement Undertaking
Under the enforcement undertaking Muc-Off Ltd paid £7,669 to the Marine Conservation Society’s beach cleaning project.
Businessman fined for operating illegal waste site in Telford.
A businessman with extended experience in the waste industry has been fined for operating a waste recycling site without an environmental permit.
Woods, who had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to 2 charges relating to operating a regulated facility, involving the storage of waste not authorised by an environmental permit, had stored around 6,500 cubic metres of waste.
The businessman had previous convictions in 2011 for environmental offences committed during 2009 and 2010, but had continued to flout the law.
The Environment Agency conducted an inspection in December 2016 after it was notified an unauthorised waste activity was being undertaken. Officers found a building containing plant, equipment and plastics in various stages of processing, as well as scrap plastic items stored in large haphazard stockpiles of up to three to four metres in height.
Officers also found a large compound, filled with used plastic window frame pieces, which limited access onto the site.
Waste management exemptions had been registered at the site, but the inspection revealed the activities were not being carried out in accordance with applicable conditions.
Follow up inspections
In January 2017, the Environment Agency told the businessman to stop waste management activities. Later that month he put forward a remediation plan. However, a follow up inspection showed there was still a significant amount of waste, with little reduction in the amount of waste held or storage improvements.
A notice was served under Section 59(1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, requiring the company to remove specified waste by June 2017. When officers visited again in June, they found no change in the quantity of waste held or how it was stored.
In August 2017, Environment Agency officers returned to the site but found it locked. Large amounts of plastic waste and wooden pallets could still be seen. A visit in March 2019 revealed that around 80% of the waste seen in 2016 remained on site.
Penalty and further enforcement
Brian Anthony Woods was ordered to pay £7,101.65 prosecution costs and a £120 surcharge.
A Regulation 44 order was made under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 to clear the waste on the site before 26 July 2020 and not to bring any additional waste on site.
Gloucester Gateway Ltd agrees to donate a five-figure sum to Wildlife Trust
In March 2017 Gloucester Gateway Limited, the owners of Gloucester M5 Services, was found to have permitted a sewage pollution incident to take place from its premises.
The pollution was caused by blue tissue from the baby changing area being flushed down toilets causing a blockage, instead of being properly disposed of in bins. The company no longer provides the tissue in these toilets.
Sewage was released to the Tuffley Brook, Gloucester killing a significant number of fish, invertebrates and eels.
The enforcement undertaking provided £60,000 to Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust to help raise awareness amongst visitors to its new environmentally sustainable headquarters.
It is understood the Trust will use the money to pay for a sustainable drainage system (SuDS), designed to showcase the importance of careful water manageme
