Policy paper

Offence Response Options: Environment Agency

The Offence Response Options (ORO) documents set out the options available to every offence we regulate.

From:
Environment Agency
Published
20 December 2019
Last updated
2821 FebruaryAugust 2023 — See all updates

Applies to England

Documents

Chemicals sector offences

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Climate change offences

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Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) offences

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Environmental damage offences

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Environmental Permitting Regulations (EPR) offences

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Extant water quality provisions offences

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Fisheries offences

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Flood risk management offences

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Land quality offences

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Navigation offences

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Obstruction: common offences

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Reservoir offences

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Waste offences

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Water resources offences

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Details

These documents incorporate the provisions of the Regulator’s Code. We will review them on a regular basis to reflect changes in legislation, government policy or ways of working.

These documents do not explain legislation or legal process. See our enforcement and sanctions policy documents.

Sometimes we provide specific regulatory position statements that outline where we stand on important issues.

Published 20 December 2019
Last updated 2821 FebruaryAugust 2023 + show all updates

  1. 'Fisheries offences' - section 1. Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975, clarified in Section 4(1): cause or knowingly permit any liquid or solid matter that is poisonous or injurious to fish, spawn, spawning areas or food of fish to enter waters containing fish. 'Flood risk management offences' - section 5. Flood Water Management Act 2010, Section 30 and Schedule 1 13(5) - removed 'The civil sanction we can impose is: variable monetary penalty'.

  2. Added the offence response options for the Packaging Waste (Data Reporting) (England) Regulations 2023 to the Waste offences document.

  3. We have updated the documents for chemicals sector offences, climate change offences and waste offences. The specific changes are listed in each document.

  4. Amended an error in the 'Waste' offence response options document. Under 'Failure to comply with a Section 34(5) notice to furnish transfer notes' we omitted the response 'fixed penalty notice'. We have now added this.

  5. First published.