Out-Law News 2 min. read
09 Dec 2013, 12:59 pm
Commenting as the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) announced the creation of a dedicated Waste Crime Team to tackle the most serious offenders, SEPA executive director Calum MacDonald highlighted the “vital role” law-abiding members of the waste community had to play in preventing crime.
“Environmental crime is the act of breaking environmental law,” he said. “Those breaches can be due to carelessness or ignorance - but we are doing a lot of work to ensure that organisations and individuals understand their responsibilities, and we will do what we can to help them.”
“What we are tackling with this new team is deliberate and sustained law breaking by those who do not care what impact their actions are having on the local environment and communities. In addition, we are seeking to change the behaviour of waste producers, in an attempt to disrupt the flow of waste at the source. Law abiding members of the waste community must understand that they have a vital role to play in preventing this kind of crime, by ensuring they understand their obligation to only deal with other legitimate businesses,” he said.
The new team within SEPA will lead investigations against the most serious waste crime offenders, and work in partnership with Police Scotland and other law enforcement agencies to identify and disrupt serious organised crime. It has been set up in response to the increased involvement of serious and organised crime gangs in the waste market, according to SEPA.
“The waste industry is a cash rich environment and the significant sums of money involved make it attractive to those with an interest in money laundering,” MacDonald said. “We have been working at Europol and Interpol level to progress our understanding of the issues, especially around international movement of waste. The investigatory processes and activities required to identify those involved needs a specialist, focused approach, which this new team can provide.”
Industry body, the Chartered Institute of Waste Management (CIWM) said that it had raised the issue with SEPA “many times” and would give the new Waste Crime Team its “full and unwavering support”.
The announcement came as Environmental Crime Taskforce, a group set up in 2011 by Scottish Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead, reported to the Scottish Government with proposals for strengthened environmental enforcement framework. Its recommendation, which include giving SEPA enhanced powers of entry and the power to seize documents in relation to suspected criminal activity, will now be taken forward by the Scottish Parliament as part of the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Bill.
Environmental law expert Gordon McCreath of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that the announcement was “yet more evidence of SEPA’s increasingly sophisticated approach to enforcement” and praised the regulator for its focus on organised crime in the waste industry.
“However, legitimate operators need to pay attention to the second part of MacDonald’s statement,” he said. “SEPA clearly sees businesses inadvertently dealing with the criminal operators as part of the problem.”
“All legitimate operators therefore need to be very careful that they fulfil their waste duty of care - including accurate completion of waste transfer notes - to ensure that they aren’t unfairly drawn into a wider investigation of the real problem: the unscrupulous operators who pay no heed to environmental law,” he said.
