Preventing environmental damage
(1) An operator of an activity that causes an imminent threat of environmental damage, or an imminent threat of damage in relation to which there are reasonable grounds to believe will become environmental damage, must immediately—
(a) take all practicable steps to prevent the damage; and
(b) (unless the threat has been eliminated) notify all relevant details to the enforcing authority appearing to be the appropriate one.
(2) The enforcing authority may serve a notice on that operator that—
(a) describes the threat;
(b) specifies the measures required to prevent the damage; and
(c) requires the operator to take those measures, or measures at least equivalent to them, within the period specified in the notice.
(3) Failure to comply with paragraph (1) or a notice served under paragraph (2) is an offence.
Preventing further environmental damage
(1) An operator of an activity that has caused environmental damage, or has caused damage where there are reasonable grounds to believe that the damage is or will become environmental damage, must immediately—
(a) take all practicable steps to prevent further damage; and
(b) notify all relevant details to the enforcing authority appearing to be the appropriate one.
(2) The enforcing authority may serve a notice on that operator that—
(a) describes the damage;
(b) requires the operator to provide additional information on any damage that has occurred;
(c) specifies the measures required to prevent further damage; and
(d) requires the operator to take those measures, or measures at least equivalent to them, within the period specified in the notice.
(3) Failure to comply with paragraph (1) or a notice served under paragraph (2) is an offence.
Action by the enforcing authority
Any duty in this Part on the operator of an activity may be carried out by the enforcing authority instead of the operator—
(a) in an emergency;
(b) if the operator cannot be ascertained; or
(c) if the operator fails to comply with a notice.
Following instructions from a public authority
When an operator acts in accordance with the instructions of a public authority, and as a result causes or threatens to cause environmental damage, and accordingly action is taken under regulations 13, 14 or 15 then, unless the instructions related to an emission or incident caused by the operator's own activities, the operator may recover the costs of actions under those regulations from that public authority.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (legislation.gov.uk).
