Civil Sanctions

We have helped a number of businesses, found to be non-compliant with
the Packaging Waste Regulations, to complete an Enforcement Undertaking

In the past, any organisation obligated under the Packaging Waste Regulations that was found not to be complying would have faced criminal prosecution.

What are civil sanctions?

Civil sanctions were introduced in January 2011, which now means that the Environment Agency has more options available when dealing with organisations that are non-compliant with the Packaging Waste Regulations.

This is a positive change because organisations that are guilty of past non-compliance may not necessarily face criminal prosecution.

Who is affected?

Currently, civil sanctions are only available to non-compliant organisations that are based in England and Wales.

Please also note, to go down the civil sanctions route your organisation must have been non compliant with the Packaging Waste Regulations after 6 April 2010 in England and 15 July 2010 in Wales.

The three options

There are three routes that the Environment Agency can choose from when dealing with non-compliant companies, which are as follows:

Enforcement Undertaking

Organisations can complete an Enforcement Undertaking form, offer a sum of money and put forward a suitable environmental project that they agree to fund with this money.

Variable Monetary Policies

A ﬁne up to a maximum of £250,000 based on the severity of the offence.

Prosecution

An option which may be used for the very worst offences.

How Valpak can help

We can assist businesses with their Enforcement Undertaking Forms by:

checking and/or submitting EU Offer Forms to the Environment Agency on a business’s behalf
calculating the costs a business has avoided by not complying
sourcing and suggesting suitable environmental projects for a business to fund
helping to coordinate the funding of environmental projects

Contact us

If you would like more details about how we can help with any of the above, please do not hesitate to contact one of our experts via our enquiry form, Live Chat, email or by calling 03450 682 572.