Wick firm hit as environmental agency issues fines totalling £85k in 2023

A Wick company is among those to have been issued with fines during 2023 for breaches of environmental regulation, according to the agency that protects Scotland’s environment.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) said it had served civil penalties totalling £85,700 in 2023.

They include 13 fixed monetary penalties of either £300 or £600 for offences such as burning waste, breaches of water use licences, discharges of sewage effluent and failing to provide SEPA with copies of documents requested in a notice.

GMR Henderson Builders Ltd, of Wick, was given a fixed penalty of £300 in July for failure to complete waste transfer notes adequately. Publicly available documents on the SEPA website show that the fine related to waste transferred from Invergordon port to an unspecified site, for which paperwork was incomplete.

SEPA explained that fixed penalties are normally appropriate where an offence has not caused environmental harm or has caused minimal environmental harm with no lasting environmental effects or impacts on communities, for administrative offences and where little, if any, financial benefit arises from the offence.

Also served this year were a £3500 variable monetary penalty for waste offences by James Roberts Marshall, Perth, and a £75,000 fine under F-gas regulations. DSM Nutritional Products (UK) Limited, Dalry, was given the £75,000 fine for failing to provide a leakage detection system on equipment containing powerful greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere and contribute to climate change.

Jennifer Shearer, head of enforcement at SEPA, said: “Civil penalties are a vital part of our enforcement toolkit, providing a deterrence to those who choose to ignore Scotland’s environmental regulations.

“Enforcement action is a key part of our job as a regulator, ensuring we disrupt and take action against those who harm the environment, communities and legitimate businesses.

“We have a range of enforcement tools available to us depending on the scale and impact of offending including disruption activities, partnership activity with other regulators and authorities, final warning letters, statutory notices, licence suspensions, fixed and variable monetary penalties and reports to Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).

“We’re committed to being proportionate, consistent, accountable and transparent in our enforcement outcomes.”

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