Report an environmental incident

If a pollution incident occurs at or near your business - a chemical spill, an oil leak reaching a drain, contaminated run-off entering a watercourse - you must act immediately. Delay can turn a containable spill into a serious environmental crime.

Reporting is not optional. Causing pollution to controlled waters is a criminal offence carrying up to 5 years in prison and an unlimited fine. Failing to report an incident you are aware of can be treated as an aggravating factor, significantly increasing any penalty.

If there is immediate danger to life or risk of fire or explosion, always call 999 first.

When you must report

Report immediately if any of the following has happened or is about to happen:

• Oil, chemicals or other pollutants have entered, or are about to enter, a river, stream, ditch, lake, pond, canal, groundwater or coastal waters.
• Pollutants have entered a surface water drain, which discharges to a watercourse rather than a sewage works.
• You can see dead or distressed fish in a watercourse near your premises.
• A large spill has soaked into the ground and may reach groundwater.
• Significant emissions, smoke or odour are affecting the area beyond your site boundary.
• You discover waste has been illegally dumped on or near your land.
• Any condition of your environmental permit has been breached.

When in doubt, report. The regulator would far rather receive a report that turns out to be minor than discover a serious incident that was not reported.

What to do during an incident

Speed matters: the faster you act, the less damage results and the more favourably the regulator will view your response.

If you hold an environmental permit

Permit holders have additional notification obligations beyond calling the incident hotline. If any condition of your environmental permit has been breached, you must:

• notify the regulator immediately by phone, using the hotline or your designated contact
• send a written notification within the time your permit conditions set (typically 24 hours for significant breaches)
• investigate the cause and record what happened, why, and what you are doing to stop it happening again
• take corrective action as the regulator directs

Check your permit conditions for specific notification requirements. Some permits require immediate notification of any abnormal operation, not just actual pollution events.

What happens after you report

After receiving your report, the regulator will typically:

1. Categorise the incident, from category 1 (most serious) to category 4 (least serious), to decide the level of response.
2. For serious incidents, send an officer to assess the damage and oversee the response.
3. Tell you what clean-up is required and by when.
4. For significant incidents, investigate the cause and whether enforcement action is appropriate.
5. Take enforcement action where warranted, ranging from advice for minor incidents to prosecution for serious or deliberate pollution.

Prompt reporting and genuine efforts to contain the damage are always taken into account when regulators decide on enforcement. Businesses that report quickly, cooperate fully, and take immediate remedial action are treated more favourably than those that try to conceal an incident.

Penalties

Causing pollution to controlled waters is a criminal offence under the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016 and the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Penalties include:

• up to 5 years in prison and an unlimited fine on indictment for causing or knowingly permitting pollution
• the full cost of cleaning up the pollution, which for water pollution can be very large
• personal prosecution of directors and managers where the offence was committed with their consent or connivance, or was attributable to their neglect
• variation, suspension or revocation of your environmental permit

There is no general offence of failing to report a pollution incident. If you hold a permit that requires you to notify a breach, failing to do so breaches a permit condition, which is an offence in its own right. In every case, regulators treat a failure to report as a serious aggravating factor. A business that causes accidental pollution but reports and responds immediately will be treated very differently from one that tries to cover it up.