The Environment Agency has published a new annex to its Enforcement and Sanctions Guidance to cover breaches under the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC), EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and climate change agreements (CCAs).
In considering whether to exercise its discretion to enforce a breach of one of these regimes, the EA will take into account public interest factors, including financial implications, whether there has been any previous non-compliance and the attitude of the offender.
The Guidance confirms that the EA will not normally impose financial penalties on individuals or corporate entities that are subject to an insolvency procedure and action taken by an organisation to correct its non-compliance will be taken into account.
Failure to pay a civil penalty is recoverable as a civil debt, and in the case of a failure to pay a CCA penalty, the CCA may also be terminated.
There are no requirements to have public registers under the EU ETS, CRC and CCA regimes. However, the EA has decided that when it imposes a penalty under one of these three regimes, it will normally publish information (for a period of 12 months) about the:
- Person on whom the penalty was imposed.
- Legal requirements that were not complied with.
- Amount of the penalty.
The guidance can be accessed here
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/389349/LIT_5551.pdf
