Environmental Law in Focus
The recent publication of the independent report by Christopher Mills into the illegal dumping at Campsie has prompted swift ministerial action with the Environment Minister, Mark H. Durkan MLA directing the Northern Ireland Environment Agency to “urgently prepare a robust range of actions” for his consideration.
The scourge of waste crime is clearly an increasing problem throughout the UK and Ireland. The recommendations in respect of the future of waste management in Northern Ireland make for “sober reading” with a key finding being that the regulation of waste in Northern Ireland is “highly vulnerable to criminal infiltration”.
The review originally tasked with examining what transpired at the Campsie site and any subsequent regulatory failures, makes a number of recommendations for the future of the waste management industry in Northern Ireland. Overall, our waste system must now be reviewed in its entirety in order to ascertain how criminals can exploit it and to introduce rigorous regulatory activity to prevent criminals entering the waste industry.
Further solutions include tightening the legislative duty of care and fit-and-proper-person tests and systems for monitoring and analysing waste flow, adopting and developing the concept of “intelligent regulations” in order to sufficiently deal with a range of operators, from the criminal to the compliant. The call for a joined-up approach ensures the likely involvement of other government departments, with the Department of Justice being tasked with persuading the judiciary of the seriousness of waste crime to ensure sentencing is comparable with the rest of the UK.
While it remains to be seen what “robust” actions will be recommended. With the Minister pledging fundamental change in how we manage waste in Northern Ireland, businesses should be prepared for the impact to be significant and industry wide. It is vitally important that businesses keep abreast of these developments.
It must be recognised that the vast majority of waste is handled lawfully and effectively by responsible waste companies. Now more than ever, businesses must ensure they undertake the necessary checks to confirm they are engaging legitimate waste management operators.
Members of the Bar are increasingly providing advice and opinion on these issues. If businesses are unsure as to their position legally, they should seek professional legal advice whether that be in respect of enforcement, judicial review or any other scenarios that may arise.
Waste crime has many far reaching consequences - it harms the environment, damages local communities and endangers the public health. Furthermore, by undermining legitimate businesses and defrauding the public purse, there is a duty on everyone involved to improve waste management.
Opinion by Paul Smyth BL, Business Eye
Members of the Bar of Northern Ireland specialise in the provision of expert independent legal advice, opinion, dispute resolution and courtroom advocacy.
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