Fines for three in Ross-shire as Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) publishes civil penalty list
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A TRIO of fines in Ross-shire totalling more than £1000 were among £85,700 worth of civil penalties dished out by Sepa across Scotland last year.
Sepa – the Scottish Environment Protection Agency – has published details of all civil penalties issued in 2023 for breaches of environmental regulations.
They include 13 Fixed Monetary Penalties (FMPs) of either £300 or £600 for offences such as burning waste, breaches of water use licences, discharges of sewage and failing to provide copies of documents requested in a notice.
Those FMPs included three in Ross-shire, including a £600 for Ian Robert Munro of Alness for burning controlled waste, and two £300 fines for discharging sewage into the environment – which were dished out to Sands Caravan and Camping Limited in Wester Ross, and Robert Main Ellen of Muir of Ord.
As well as being issued for a specified offence, Sepa said that FMPs are normally deemed "appropriate" where an offence "has not caused environmental harm or has caused minimal environmental harm with no lasting environmental effects or impacts on communities", as well as for administrative offences, and where little (if any) financial benefit arises from the offence.
Jennifer Shearer, head of enforcement at Sepa, said: “Civil penalties are a vital part of our enforcement toolkit, providing a deterrence to those who choose to ignore Scotland’s environmental regulations. Enforcement action is a key part of our job as a regulator, ensuring we disrupt and take action against those who harm the environment, communities and legitimate businesses.
“We have a range of enforcement tools available to us depending on the scale and impact of offending including disruption activities, partnership activity with other regulators and authorities, final warning letters, statutory notices, licence suspensions, fixed and variable monetary penalties and reports to Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) We’re committed to being proportionate, consistent, accountable and transparent in our enforcement outcomes.”
The fines were not the only ones handed out in the Highlands in 2023, with £300 FMPs issued to both GMR Henderson Builders Ltd in Wick for failure to complete waste transfer notes adequately; and to Barry Bain of Inverness over failure to attend a compelled interview.
