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CCA
Responses to Consultation Documents |
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INTRODUCTION
1.1 |
This note discusses whether
the differences that exist between the legal regimes
enforced by the Environment Agency on the one
hand and the Health and Safety Executive on the
other should impact upon the nature of the respective
Enforcement Policy Statements of these two agencies.
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1.2 |
The Centre has set out
detailed proposals why the HSC should incorporate
key aspects of the Environment Agencies Enforcement
Policy Statement. This would, crucially, mean
that that HSC Enforcement Statement should:
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1.3 |
However, it has been suggested
that it might not be appropriate to incorporate
the EA Statement principles into the HSC document,
because of significant differences that are said
to exist between environmental law on the one
hand and health and safety law, on the other.
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1.4 |
It is argued that HSC's
powers to enforce notices and prosecute offences
are not concerned with the enforcement of a "licensing"
or "authorisation" regime (as they are
with the Environment Agency) but with the enforcement
of a wider set of health and safety duties. This
difference is considered to be significant because
unlike general duties, a "license" or
"authorisation" is individually tailored
for each company and sets specific conditions
to which the company must adhere. As a result,
any enforcement action taken will concern breaches
of a much narrower set of circumstances, with
which the company has specifically agreed. In
such a scenario, it is argued, it is more appropriate
for the Environment Agency to (a) separate the
powers into two categories, and (b) to establish
parallel responses to legal breaches. |
1.5 |
1.5 This argument implies:
(a) the Environment
Agency's Enforcement Policy Statement is appropriate
to the Environment Agency because of the particular
legal regime it enforces, and
(b) that the HSE would enforce the law in
a similar way to the Environment Agency if
it had a regime, similar to that of the EA,
to enforce.(1)
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1.6 |
This note argues that
although there are indeed some differences between
the two legal regimes:
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1. Terry Gates of the
HSE's Policy Division has for example, told that the
Centre, that in those regimes enforced by the HSE that
are similar to the Environment Agency, the HSE does
prosecute when an offence has been committed. As is
shown in paragraphs 4.5 to 4.12, this is not the case |
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