Press release: Raw sewage pollution leads to £100,000 of environmental benefits
Anglian Water Services Ltd will pay the Environment Agency costs as part of a civil sanction. read more
Author Archives: HM Government
Press release: Raw sewage pollution leads to £100,000 of environmental benefits
Anglian Water Services Ltd will be paying £100,000 to a local charity Rockingham Forest Trust to make amends for discharging crude sewage into the Willow Brook in Corby.
The company has also agreed to undertake site improvement works, and will pay the Environment Agency costs as part of a civil sanction called an Enforcement Undertaking (EU).
The pollution occurred on 21 June 2014, when crude sewage was released into the Willow Brook in Corby, Northamptonshire. This sewage resulted in pollution along 6 kilometres of the brook, leading to numerous reports of discoloured water as well as the death of up to 500 fish.
Upon inspection Environment Agency officers found that this pollution originated from Corby Water Recycling Works, which is owned by Anglian Water Services. Anglian Water had been aware of a serious problem at the Corby site since 3pm on 21 June, but failed to notify the Environment Agency until officers of the EA came to the water recycling centre in the evening.
Following the incident, Anglian Water agreed under the terms of an EU to make a financial contribution of £100,000 to Rockingham Forest Trust, a local environmental charity which manages areas including the water environment in the Nene Valley.
Anglian Water also made improvements to the site to prevent similar incidents recurring in the future, and paid £14,834.10 in costs to the EA.
Along with prosecutions, the Environment Agency uses enforcement notices, stop notices and civil sanctions to either improve performance or stop sites from operating. It is making better use of the wide range of measures that are available to bring sites back into compliance as quickly as possible.
The Environment Agency’s use of civil sanctions is in line with recent legislation extending their availability for more offences.
Civil sanctions such as these can be a proportionate and cost-effective way for businesses to make amends for less serious environmental offences.
Yvonne Daly, Environment Manager with the Environment Agency, said:
We will always take forward prosecutions in the most serious cases. However, we felt the Enforcement Undertaking was the most appropriate sanction in this case.
We felt it to be a more proportionate response that would benefit the environment – achieving more than if the company had been convicted and fined.
The Enforcement Undertaking requires Anglian Water to:
- Make a donation of £100,000 to the Rockingham Forest Trust
- Make improvements to site operations
- Pay Environment Agency £14,834.10 in costs
Failure to comply with an EU may result in the offender being prosecuted for the original offence. Details of Enforcement Undertakings accepted by the Environment Agency can be found on our website here.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
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On 21 June 2014, Anglian Water Services Ltd put sewage effluent into waters containing fish, namely the Willow Brook in Corby, Northamptonshire, to such an extent as to cause the said waters to be poisonous or injurious to fish or the spawning grounds, spawn or food of fish. This was contrary to Section 4(1) of the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975.
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This Enforcement Undertaking was accepted on 29 November 2016.
Press release: Local skills and jobs in nuclear part of Industrial Strategy
The importance of nuclear and the huge benefits to technical education and local jobs for the Bridgwater area were reaffirmed yesterday when Jesse Norman, the new Energy Minister, visited Hinkley Point and Cannington Court training centre, near Bridgwater, Somerset for the first time.
During the visit the Minister toured the Hinkley Point B power station and the construction site for Hinkley Point C.
He also met apprentices and EDF Energy employees at both the Cannington Court training centre, and the Construction Skills and Innovation Centre.
Energy Minister, Jesse Norman said:
The visit to Hinkley Point C construction project has been fascinating.
This project heralds a new era of nuclear power generation in the UK, and coming here has given me a chance to see low-carbon energy driving local and national economic growth, attracting new businesses and creating high-skilled, well-paid jobs.
These are all key goals of our new UK-wide Industrial Strategy.
Hinkley Point C nuclear power station will provide:
- 25,000 jobs and apprenticeships during construction
- An estimated 64% of the £18bn cost of construction to go to UK businesses
- 900 permanent jobs once running; and
- £40 million a year to the local economy
Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, EDF Energy’s Nuclear New Build Managing Director, said:
The UK Government has placed its trust in us to deliver Hinkley Point C on time and on budget and this visit is an opportunity to show the Minister the significant progress we have made. We now have more than 1,000 workers on site, carrying out earthworks, building staff accommodation and constructing the jetty which will allow us to bring in many of our supplies by sea.
Hinkley Point C is already achieving some of the aims of the Government’s industrial strategy by creating thousands of jobs and opportunities in the South West and by helping to secure the long-term future of the UK nuclear industry.
The Government is committed to ensuring the country has a secure low carbon energy supply. Hinkley Point C will be a critical part of that, and will inaugurate a new era of UK nuclear power – building on Britain’s strong nuclear legacy.
Currently, the UK has eight nuclear power stations which generate around 20% of power in the UK. Almost all of these existing power stations are due to close by 2030. This underlines why the Government is taking decisions now on how we will ensure we have sufficient and diverse supply fit for future generations.
Hinkley Point C will provide seven per cent of Britain’s electricity needs for sixty years. The Industrial Strategy Green paper released last week included plans for a radical overhaul of technical education to address its historical undervaluation in the UK and provide a credible alternative to the academic route for young people who choose not to go to university.
The strategy sets out plans to enable everyone to develop the skills they need to do the high-paid, higher-skilled jobs of the future.
read morePress release: Misconduct after failure to comply with Commission
Regulator publishes report of its inquiry into Urban Relief.
The Charity Commission has today concluded its inquiry into Urban Relief (former registered charity number 1114537). The Commission opened an inquiry on 3 February 2015 after a trustee of the charity had been convicted of a number of offences, including managing a brothel, concealing criminal property and using the charity’s bank account to launder funds from the proceeds of crime.
The Commission undertook scrutiny of the charity’s bank accounts and conducted further enquiries, including attempting to meet all the trustees. Although the inquiry’s analysis of the bank account records indicates that the charity did receive and spend funds, the inquiry saw no evidence that those funds were obtained or applied in furtherance of its objects.
Both the convicted trustee and his wife (also a trustee) failed to cooperate with the inquiry despite being ordered to do so by the Commission. The Commission found that 2 of the 4 charity trustees were unaware that their names had been declared to the Commission (see endnote 1).
The inquiry concluded that the trustees were responsible for mismanagement and misconduct in the administration of the charity due to a persistent failure to comply with the Commission’s orders and directions. The Commission removed the charity from the register on 21 November 2016 (see endnote 2).
Carl Mehta, Head of Investigations, Enforcement at the Charity Commission, said:
The trustees in this case failed to abide by even the basic duties of trustees and failed to cooperate with our investigation. This charity has now been removed from the register of charities and the trustee involved was held to account by the criminal justice system.
The full report is available on GOV.UK.
Ends
PR 07/17
Notes to editors
- The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work, see our annual report.
- Search for charities on our online register.
- Details of how the Commission reports on its regulatory work can be found on GOV.UK.
Endnotes
- The Commission established in the inquiry that out of the 4 trustees 2 had never consented to be trustees, or acted in that capacity.
- The charity ceased to operate as of August 2014, the last discernable date that any funds were transacted through the charity’s bank account.
Press release: Bishop of Sheffield: Philip North
The Queen has approved the nomination of the Right Reverend Philip John North for election as Bishop of Sheffield.
The Queen has approved the nomination of the Right Reverend Philip John North, MA, Suffragan Bishop of Burnley, in the diocese of Blackburn, for election as Bishop of Sheffield in succession to the Right Reverend Steven John Lindsey Croft, MA, PhD, on his translation to the See of Oxford on 6th July 2016.
The Right Reverend Philip North (aged 50), was educated at the University of York and trained for the ministry at Saint Stephen’s House, Oxford. He served his curacy at Sunderland Saint Mary and Saint Peter, in the Diocese of Durham from 1992 to 1996. Since 1997 he has been a member of the Company of Mission Priests.
From 1996 to 2002 he was Vicar of Hartlepool Holy Trinity in Durham Diocese and also served as Area Dean of Hartlepool from 2000 until 2002. From 2002 to 2008 he was Priest Administrator at the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham and from 2004 to 2007 he was also Priest-in-Charge of Hempton in the diocese of Norwich. From 2008 to 2015 he was Team Rector of the Parish of Old Saint Pancras in the Diocese of London. Since 2015 he has been Suffragan Bishop of Burnley.
His interests include current affairs, cycling and walking.