Applying civil sanctions - what’s new?

At the beginning of 2025, the Environment Agency (EA) ran a consultation seeking views on a proposed update to its enforcement and sanctions policy. In October 2025 it published the outcome.

Pursuant to the Environment Act 2021 (EA 2021), the EA can impose civil sanctions for breaches of legal requirements under some (but not all) of the waste and resource efficiency regulatory regimes. Civil sanctions in the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 (pEPR) came into force on 1st January 2025. Other obligations under the EA 2021 will fall within the scope of Annex 4 as they come into force.

EA 2021 civil sanctions

The EA already has the ability to issue civil sanctions under the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008 so what is the difference between the civil sanctions under these two separate sets of legislation?

In short:

• A breach does not need to be a criminal offence for the EA to impose civil sanctions under the EA 2021.

• The standard of proof for sanctions under the EA 2021 is to the civil standard “on the balance of probabilities”, whereas under the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008 it is to the criminal standard of “beyond reasonable doubt”.

The EA states its usual approach will be to seek to make use of the powers it has to apply civil sanctions. This is to reflect the intention of the legislation in providing civil sanction powers. As ever, criminal prosecution will be reserved for conduct which has particularly reprehensible elements, such as fraud, bad faith, misleading statements or conduct.

Monetary penalties

The EA clarifies it does not have a choice whether to impose a fixed monetary penalty (FMP) or variable monetary penalty (VMP) in relation to a specific breach. Where there has been a breach and the EA has the power to apply a civil sanction, it only has the power to impose a FMP or VMP (alongside compliance notices and enforcement undertakings).

The EA confirmed it does not have the power to impose a FMP other than £1,000, as this is fixed in the regulations. Though, if a FMP is not paid and no appeal made within 56 days the FMP is increased to £1,500.

In relation to pEPR, when calculating a VMP, the EA takes into account harm to both the recycling obligation and the disposal fee systems embedded within the pEPR regime, identifiable financial gain and avoided costs as a result of the breach. The EA will follow the guideline and assess the size of the organisation by turnover or equivalent to take the financial circumstances of the organisation into account. The starting point for the most serious, deliberate offence by a large organisation is £1 million (within a range of between £450,000 to £3 million) – that is the top of the tariff scale. Very large organisations may be treated in a class of their own. The EA states it will “consider the approach and guidance” set out in cases, “particularly decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court” on sentencing very large organisations.

Enforcement undertakings

Enforcement undertakings are more likely to be accepted when they are offered early and proactively. The value of the benefit or improvement offered will be expected to be broadly equivalent to the amount of a VMP. Offers will normally be rejected where the breach was intentional, a prosecution is appropriate and in the public interest, or if it includes a clause denying liability.