Sepa prosecutions of environmental rulebreakers plummet

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) received 9201 complaints about pollution from the public in 2023. This was a 60% increase on the 5768 complaints ­received in 2014.

But the high level of concern about the state of Scotland’s ­environment has not prompted the Scottish ­Government’s regulator to seek more prosecutions of rule-breaking ­polluters.

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In 2014-15, Sepa referred 36 ­alleged pollution breaches to the Crown ­Office and Procurator ­Fiscal Service (COPFS), Scotland’s public ­prosecutor. There were 18 ­prosecutions based on reports by Sepa that year.

In 2023, despite a much higher number of complaints, just three ­cases were reported to COPFS and there were no prosecutions. In the five years since 2019, there have only been seven convictions for ­environmental crimes initiated by Sepa.

There has also been a 15% ­decrease in the number of frontline staff ­employed by Sepa to deal directly with pollution complaints since 2017.

Opposition politicians described The Ferret’s findings from freedom of information (FoI) requests as “­troubling”. They expressed concern that ­polluters could be “flouting the law” and have a “licence to pollute”.

Campaigners pointed the ­finger at the Scottish Government for ­sustained real-terms budget cuts which were “contributing to Sepa’s failure to carry out its regulatory ­duties”.

Sepa claimed it is focused on ­“disrupting illegal activity” and that recommending prosecution was only one tool it could use to tackle ­environmental crimes. Over recent years, the increasing use of other ­penalties, such as fines, may have “partly” contributed to the reduction in cases reported to COPFS, it said.

The increase in pollution ­complaints could be due to the ­introduction of an online complaint form in 2021-22 which meant ­members of the public no longer have to report incidents over the phone, Sepa claimed.

The Scottish Government said it believes Sepa is “adequately resourced” to carry out its regulatory duties.

'Blind eye'

SEPA only referred seven cases to COPFS between the start of 2022 and October 2024 despite receiving more than 22,000 pollution complaints.

There was one prosecution ­during that period, of an individual whose ­Ayrshire skip hire and waste ­collection business breached its ­licence. He was ordered to repay more than £200,000 he made illegally from waste offences between 2016 and 2019.

The findings come from six FoI ­requests ­submitted by The Ferret to Sepa after insiders raised concerns about its ­performance and priorities.

We reported last year that Sepa had slashed its legal enforcement ­actions – including fines and warnings – against polluters in the previous seven years. That revelation sparked fears that it was turning a “blind eye” to pollution.

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The FoI responses revealed that the number of frontline staff employed by Sepa to deal directly with pollution complaints has decreased from 551 in 2017 to 470 in 2024.

Meanwhile, the number of water samples taken by the agency across the country to check for pollution has plummeted by 65% since 2019. These samples look for contamination in rivers, lochs and coastal waters.

There were more than 16,000 of these samples taken in 2019 compared with just under 6000 in 2023. Even fewer were taken in 2021 and 2022 and no samples were taken in 2020.

Sepa blamed the decline in ­samples on the Covid-19 pandemic and ­disruptions to its computer systems caused by the criminal cyber attack it was subjected to in December 2020.But it accepted that “adjusting working practices” had reduced ­sampling.

Sepa also said levels of environmental monitoring were “almost back to pre-2020 levels” and that in the meantime, it had been targeting water samples to areas that “are most at risk”.

Budget cuts polling

in August suggested that more than three quarters of Scots at least occasionally worry about the state of the natural environment.

Despite this, Sepa – Scotland’s key environmental regulator – has seen its budget decrease by around a ­quarter in real terms since 2010. The wildlife agency, NatureScot, has also had its budget cut.

According to Kim Pratt, a ­campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland, environmental regulation is “essential”, but these cuts mean Sepa is “being asked to do even more with less and our environment is ­ultimately paying the price”.

Pratt told The Ferret: “­Mounting pressure and funding cuts are ­contributing to Sepa’s failure to carry out its regulatory duties.

“Ministers must put their money where their mouth is and pay for proper protection of our ­environment.”

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James Curran, who was Sepa’s chief executive between 2012 and 2015, echoed Pratt’s view. “You get what you pay for and, by repeatedly cutting funding for environmental ­organisations, the Scottish Government is clearly ignoring these very public concerns,” Curran claimed.

The Scottish Greens’ environment spokesperson, Mark Ruskell MSP, said the figures raised “serious ­concerns and questions for Sepa” and that environmental rule-breakers could be “flouting the law”.

“If polluters are not being held ­accountable for the destruction they are causing, they will only continue to pollute,” Ruskell argued.

“We need to ensure that Sepa has the powers and resources it needs to follow-up on reports and take the ­action that is needed.”

The Scottish LibDems’ ­justice and climate spokesperson, Liam McArthur MSP, claimed that even when the Greens were in ­coalition with the SNP, the ­Scottish Government has “not ­treated ­environmental protection as a ­priority in recent years”.

McArthur expressed concern that environmental offenders would come to believe that the law “has no teeth and take this as a licence to ­pollute”.

He added: “It’s troubling that the number of prosecutions has fallen to next to nothing, even as the number of complaints has skyrocketed.

“Sepa will need to have a ­compelling explanation for why it thought so few of these cases were worth ­pursuing.”

Sandra Tough, Sepa’s head of ­permitting, said the ­regulator works with a range of other ­partners to ­“intervene and ­disrupt” ­environmental crime “before further harm is caused”. Sepa was “focused on disrupting illegal ­activity and ­taking robust action against those who fail to comply”, she added.

Tough told The Ferret: “­Submitting reports to COPFS ­recommending prosecution is only one tool in a ­package of measures Sepa can ­deploy in response to environmental ­offences.

“Over recent years, we have ­increased the use of these ­different tools, which include issuing civil ­penalties, and this may be partly ­responsible for the reduction in the number of reports submitted to COPFS in the five years since 2019.”

According to Sepa’s website, it has issued 98 civil penalties since 2019 with operators fined a total of £58,600. Only two have been handed out so far in 2024.

Tough continued: “While recognising the reality of the current ­financial environment, we will ­continue to ­prioritise our work where it will have the biggest impact on the ­environment and be the best value for money for the public purse.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said it was “content that Sepa is adequately resourced to discharge its statutory duties”.

They added: “The settlement for 2024-25 provided a 5% uplift to Sepa’s core funding, bringing its core budget to £52.6 million.”

Even with the uplift to Sepa ­funding this year, its budget has ­decreased by 23% in real terms since 2010-11.

Sepa’s budget was £45m in 2010-11 and would now have to be more than £67m to have kept up with inflation, according to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator.

The spokesperson also pointed out that Sepa would this year make £51m from charges it levies on ­businesses who are allowed to pollute Scotland’s environment.