The House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee of UK found in its ‘Who Watches the Watchdogs’ report in 2024 that “it is difficult to assess whether a regulator has been sufficiently monitoring and enforcing compliance, and if this is having a positive impact”. In its recent report the Office of Environmental Protection (England) identified very clearly where under performance in compliance monitoring in one major regime is occurring, and the reasons for this. This report shows that further progress will be required to improve the effectiveness of regulation of this sector, so that it can more demonstrably help shape economic growth whilst safeguarding the environment and nature. In this context, we hope this report is helpful in shining a light on inspection practice.
The Office for Environmental Protection published recently a report A Review of Environment Agency Inspections in the Waste Operations and Installations Sector in England.
A core purpose of this work was to understand the basis of the Environment Agency’s reported figure that 97% of regulated waste operations and installations are compliant. It also examined how the legal framework for environmental inspections operates in practice, including the extent to which inspections support the identification and resolution of serious non‑compliance and how risk‑based regulation is planned, delivered, and monitored by the Environment Agency. We do this by considering the quality and effectiveness of inspections at permitted sites. In particular, we test whether inspectors followed the Environment Agency’s operational guidance, which reflects legal requirements as well as their own and the Government’s standards and objectives. We form an understanding of this by looking at a sample of inspectors’ reports produced following every inspection. We also engaged with stakeholders (industry and EA officers) to consider their views on inspection practice.
The link to the report can be found here: A review of Environment Agency inspections in the waste operations and installations sector in England | Office for Environmental Protection