Cause pollution meaning

In this issue: EU fundamentals Banking and finance Competition and state aid Data protection and cybersecurity Dispute resolution Financial services Energy Environment IP Life sciences Regulatory TMT Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Trackers EU fundamentals Council and Parliament adopt EU budget for 2026 The Council of the EU together with the European Parliament have now approved the EU’s 2026 budget. Commitments are fixed at €192.8bn, while payments come to €190.1bn. A reserve of €715.7m remains below the spending ceilings of the current multiannual financial framework (MFF), enabling the EU to react to unexpected events. This marks the sixth yearly budget within the 2021–27 MFF. See: LNB News 24/11/2025 32 and LNB News 26/11/2025 42. European Commission releases November 2025 infringement package The Commission has issued the November 2025 infringement package, outlining the EU Member States it is pursuing for failing to fulfil...

What is the nature of the liability? The Environmental Protection Act 1990, Part IIA (EPA 1990) sets out a liability‑focused framework designed to address the United Kingdom’s legacy of contaminated land. Under Part IIA, causing contamination is not, in itself, a criminal offence. By contrast, failing to comply with a remediation notice served by the enforcing authority is an offence. Retrospective liability An ‘appropriate person’ can be required to meet the costs of cleaning up contaminated land where the contamination occurred before 1 April 2000, even if the conduct was lawful at the time. This retrospective element enables the enforcing authority to require remediation at historically polluted sites that would otherwise be unlikely to be remediated. ‘New’ contamination is ordinarily addressed under other regimes, such as the environmental permitting or environmental liability regimes. Strict liability For the ‘causation’ limb of the liability test, the regime is strict: the enforcing authority does not have to show that the original polluter intended to cause the contamination, or...

Introduction What is groundwater? In brief, groundwater is water stored beneath the surface. Rainfall gathers and then infiltrates the soil, percolating through soils and rocks into aquifers—layers of porous rock or sediment. The British Geological Survey notes that groundwater supplies around one third of the public water in England and makes an important contribution in Wales and Scotland. What is groundwater activity Government guidance explains that a groundwater activity includes: discharging a pollutant that causes, or could cause, a direct or indirect input to groundwater any other discharge that may lead to a direct or indirect pollutant input to groundwater an activity subject to a Schedule 22 notice that has taken effect an activity, carried out as part of another class of regulated facility, that may cause such a discharge The guidance further states it is an offence to cause or knowingly permit a groundwater activity unless authorised by a permit or registered as exempt. Environmental...

This Practice Note examines the principal legislation in England and Wales for controlling and preventing water pollution, along with the related offences. Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016—pollution offence and environmental permits The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations (EPR 2010), SI 2010/675 repealed the main water pollution offence in section 85 of the Water Resources Act 1991 (WRA 1991) and revoked the Groundwater (England and Wales) Regulations 2009, SI 2009/2902. Those offences are now contained in the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (EPR 2016), SI 2016/1154, which repealed and replaced EPR 2010 from 1 January 2017. Under EPR 2016, SI 2016/1154, reg 38, it is an offence to: operate a regulated facility cause or knowingly permit the discharge of any poisonous, noxious or polluting matter, waste matter, trade effluent or sewage effluent to surface water (water discharge activity), or cause or knowingly permit the discharge of a pollutant or other discharge that might lead to the input of a pollutant...