On February 29th, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) issued a consultation inviting your views and comments on the draft regulations for England and for Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland are to consult separately) to implement Directive 2004/35 on environmental liability. The regulations impose obligations on operators of activities which cause or threaten to cause environmental damage. The regulations also define environmental damage, which generally includes only the more serious damage to certain species and habitats, water and land.

It introduces two distinct types of liability:

· strict liability - in respect of environmental damage, caused by a specified range of ‘occupational activities’, and

· fault-based liability - in respect of environmental damage to protected species and natural habitats from all other occupational activities

The consultation document contains a list of 32 questions regarding the draft regulations as well as background and supporting information.

The consultation will close on 27 May 2008.

Further information about the consultation is available from:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/env-liability-regs/

Source: www.defra.gov.uk  (accessed 04/03/08)

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 9:18 am and is filed under Environmental News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.