Environmental law - enforcement


When facing environmental sanction, you still have options. We can help you consider alternatives to prosecution, challenge a civil penalty or present a compelling defence or persuasive mitigation.

Whatever the size of your organisation or the sector you work in, you'll be subject to a raft of environmental legislation. Even homeowners can find themselves inadvertently falling foul of some of the toughest environmental standards in the world.

Where enforcement or sanction is likely, we can help you understand the approach the regulator will take and advise you on the merits of alternatives to formal court proceedings.

We work constructively with the regulator, recognising the important job that they do, while at the same time ensuring that they abide by their own policies and obligations.

Our experience

  • Successfully negotiating enforcement undertakings on behalf of a waste transfer business following a catastrophic fire

  • Representing a composting business being prosecuted for a breach of licence conditions. Presenting effective mitigation and ensuring that business operations were unaffected.

  • Persuading the regulator not to take enforcement action in respect of a breach of a licence condition relating to the transport of radioactive substances

  • Advising an agricultural business in respect of the investigation into a leak of waste from a processing plant into a nearby water course. Successfully achieving an early resolution by way of enforcement undertakings.

  • Making successful representations on behalf of a landowner threatened with prosecution over the unlawful burning of waste by a contractor

  • Advising a university in respect of representations to the Environment Agency challenging a decision to impose a Civil Penalty in respect of the Carbon Reduction Scheme

Get in touch

Our team of legal experts are here to support you.
Contact one of our lawyers today.

Our lawyers

Our lawyers understand the context within which regulators operate and will ensure that you're being treated fairly and proportionately. Duncan Astill has experience of environment agency enforcement spanning 20 years.

Meet our team

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