Water Environment (Abstractions and Associated Impoundments) Act 2022

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Supplemental provisions relating to compliance notices

99. (1) Without prejudice to the generality of section 97 (1) or 98 (1), a compliance notice shall—

(a) require the taking of specified measures which the local authority or Agency considers necessary in order to prevent or limit failure by a water body to meet its environmental objectives caused by an abstraction or prevent a recurrence thereof,

(b) in the case of a compliance notice referred to in section 98 (3) require the taking of specified measures which the Agency considers necessary in order to prevent or limit significant adverse effects on the environment caused by an abstraction,

(c) as the local authority or Agency considers necessary, require the suspension or cessation of the abstraction,

(d) require the mitigation or remedying of any effects of any abstraction aforesaid in a specified manner,

(e) state the specified date, and

(f) advise the recipient of his or her right, under section 100 , to appeal against or apply to suspend the operation of the compliance notice.

(2) Subject to section 100 , a compliance notice shall take effect on the specified date.

(3) A compliance notice—

(a) may be given whether or not there has been a prosecution for an offence under this Act in relation to the abstraction concerned, and

(b) shall not prejudice the initiation of a prosecution for an offence under this Act in relation to the abstraction concerned.

(4) At any time where it considers it appropriate or necessary having regard to its functions under this Act, a local authority or the Agency may give a compliance notice amending a compliance notice (including a compliance notice amended under this subsection) and save where the context does not admit such a construction, references in this Part to a compliance notice shall, if the notice has been amended under this subsection, be construed as references to the compliance notice as so amended.

(5) A compliance notice shall remain in force—

(a) unless it is discharged on appeal or varied,

(b) until the local authority or the Agency revokes it, or

(c) until the local authority or the Agency gives notice to the recipient stating that the compliance notice has been complied with.

(6) A person who fails to comply with a compliance notice by the specified date shall be guilty of an offence.

(7) A person who continues to fail to comply with a compliance notice after the specified date shall be guilty of an offence.

(8) Where a person does not comply with a compliance notice by the specified date—

(a) the local authority or the Agency which gave the compliance notice may take any measures it considers necessary to protect or restore the water body, and

(b) in the case of a compliance notice referred to in section 98 (3), the Agency may take any measures it considers necessary to mitigate or remedy the significant adverse effects on the environment,

and the local authority or the Agency, as the case may be, may recover the cost of such measures from the person to whom the compliance notice is given as a simple contract debt in a court of competent jurisdiction.

(9) In this section, “specified date” means—

(a) where the compliance notice provides that it is to take effect regardless of any appeal under section 100 , the date the compliance notice is received by the person to whom it is given, or on such later date as may be specified in the compliance notice, or

(b) where the compliance notice does not so provide—

(i) where no appeal is brought under section 100 against the compliance notice, on the date on which the period during which an appeal may be taken expires, or if later than that date, the date specified in the compliance notice as the day on which it is to come into effect, or

(ii) where an appeal is brought under section 100 , the date on which the compliance notice is confirmed on appeal, or the appeal is withdrawn, or if later than that date, the date specified in the compliance notice as the day on which it is to come into effect.