Consultation on civil penalties for infringements of F gas regulations

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Defra, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Scottish Government have published a consultation regarding the introduction of civil penalties for infringements of F gas regulations. It seeks views on the introduction of a new civil penalties scheme to replace the existing penalty regime for infringements of the EU Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulation (EU No 517/2014) and runs until 24 November 2017. The government and Scottish government will consider whether to change any aspect of these proposals in light of the responses and evidence received.

The purpose of the consultation is to gather views on the proposal to introduce civil penalties from April 2018 in England, Scotland and in relation to offshore hydrocarbon installations in marine areas. These penalties would, in many cases, replace court action under the current enforcement regime. Civil penalties would not be introduced in Wales and Northern Ireland, as those devolved administrations have decided not to adopt civil penalties at the moment

We would encourage all REFCOM members to respond to this consultation and feedback their thoughts. The consultation consists of three simple questions (which we’ve outlined below) and the more people who respond, the better the chance we as an industry have of getting real action on this.

  • Do you support the introduction of civil penalties?
  • Are you content with the proposals for how the system would work and with the proposed level of penalties? What changes would you propose, if any?
  • Are you content with the proposed appeals procedure? What changes would you propose, if any?

Click here to respond to the consultation.

We will be responding to the consultation but would encourage all of our members to have their say too.