Date:  18 April 2008
Embargo: None
Reference: ESA
Contact:  Dr Steven Toole (020) 7591 3219 or  Dr Steven Toole

Environment Agency Integrated Regulation Programme
The Environment Agency has announced that it will start the roll-out of an online hub for environmental permitting, data reporting and payments, the Integrated Regulation Programme, within months. As well as reducing paperwork, the Environment agency claim that the new IT system should allow the Agency to hone its risk-based regulation and eventually allow charges to be based on whole sites, rather than individual permits. Until now, form-filling and data reporting under the regulatory regimes the Agency is responsible for has largely been paper-based.The waste industry will be one of the first sectors to be impacted upon by these changes.

Commenting, ESA Chief Executive Dirk Hazell said:

“ESA welcomes any Agency initiative that leads to efficiency gains and proven benefits for charge payers. We hope the Agency's Integrated Regulation Programme will allow Regulators to distinguish between well-managed firms and intentionally non-compliant firms, and target enforcement activity accordingly. Modern regulation should increase efficiency, reduce costs for responsible businesses and enable the regulator to focus its resources on tackling poor performers and illegal operators.”

ENDS
Notes to Editors
ESA is the UK’s sectoral trade association for waste and secondary resource management, an industry accounting for 0.7% GDP.