Asbos for polluting firms
Businesses found guilty of polluting could be issued with anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) under new plans announced today by the Environment Agency (EA).
The agency says profits were still being made from environmentally damaging activities, highlighting about 100,000 incidents of fly-tipping involving waste from UK companies last year.
In its annual report on corporate environmental behaviour, the EA says firms were fined £2.3 million for environmental offences last year, and calls for the wider use of Asbos against businesses flouting environmental legislation.
“Good regulation is about letting businesses and farmers with good environmental performance get on with their jobs, focusing attention on the poorer performers to help them get better,” said EA chief executive Barbara Young.
“However, we will continue to come down hard on those businesses or individuals that put the environment at risk.”
The number of serious pollution incidents caused by the waste industry rose 27 per cent during 2004, while those caused by the farming industry increased by 11 per cent. One Asbo was imposed after a plant hire businesses repeatedly incinerated skips of rubbish illegally.
“We will prosecute businesses for poor performance and environmental damage, whether we regulate them or not,” the report says. “We will also hold them accountable for the environmental performance of the operators they use.”
Campaign group Friends of the Earth welcomed today’s announcement but said punishment of polluting companies should not stop at Asbos.
“Bringing in robust company law is the only way to make companies take their social and environmental responsibilities seriously. The government has a real opportunity to do this over the next year as part of the Company Law Reform Bill,” said corporate accountability spokesman Craig Bennett.
