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Enforcement

As Scotland’s principal environmental regulator, we use proportionate and targeted enforcement to ensure compliance with environmental laws, deter illegal activities, and drive behaviour change. This generates positive outcomes for the environment, communities, and economy in Scotland. On this page you can view:

Enforcement policy and guidance

Enforcement is an essential part of our regulatory approach, and we are committed to using our enforcement powers and tools responsibly. Our enforcement actions are guided by clear policies and principles, ensuring they are proportionate, consistent, accountable and transparent.

Our enforcement policy (pdf 25kB) and guidance on the use of enforcement action (pdf 1.2MB) underpin our decision-making in relation to enforcement action that can include enforcement measures.

The Lord Advocate’s guidance (pdf 607Kb) to SEPA also supports enforcement decision making. It sets out circumstances and criteria for using enforcement measures and makes it clear when we should be consulting the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service so that prosecution can be considered.

Enforcement measures

The Environmental Regulation (Enforcement Measures) (Scotland) Order 2015 provides SEPA with the power to issue penalties and accept undertakings for relevant environmental offences.

The enforcement measures available to us include:

Fixed Monetary Penalties (FMP)

An FMP is a financial penalty that we may impose for a relevant offence. There are three levels of penalty which are prescribed in above mentioned order: £300; £600 and £1000. Therefore, the amount of the FMP is set in law. FMPs allow us to issue penalties for non-compliance and are normally appropriate where an offence involves no direct harm, with no lasting effects or impact on the environment or communities, and when little (if any) financial benefit arises from the offence.

For further information on FMPs please refer to the relevant section within the Guidance on the use of enforcement action.

Enforcement Undertakings (EU)

An EU is an offer, made voluntarily by a responsible person to make amends for non-compliance and its effects and to prevent recurrence. In addition, an offer needs to include appropriate beneficial action e.g. by offering longer term gains through more sustainable operating practices and by bringing about benefits to communities. An EU can be offered at any time before we have decided what enforcement action we will take, even before we are aware of the non-compliance.

If you are intending to offer an EU, you should contact us as soon as possible rather than waiting until the offer is ready to submit. This will allow for an appropriate investigation to be completed, and we can tell you if an EU can be considered in the circumstances before you invest time in preparing a detailed offer. Please read the relevant section in the Guidance on the use of enforcement action before completing and submitting your offer form:

Variable Monetary Penalties (VMP)

VMPs are discretionary financial penalties which SEPA can impose for a relevant offence. They are likely to be used for offences at the upper end of the scale of offending, but which do not require to be reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) for consideration of prosecution. We will refer to our guide on how SEPA will determine a VMP (pdf 535kB) when calculating the level of VMP.

For further information on VMPs please refer to the relevant section in the guidance on the use of enforcement action.

Variable Monetary Penalty Undertakings (VMPU)

A VMPU offer can only be made following receipt of a VMP notice of intent. A VMPU may be offered to make amends for non-compliance and its effects and to prevent recurrence. This is a limited opportunity for a person to make an offer which brings benefits to the environment or the local community instead of paying the VMP.

If you have received a VMP notice of intent and are considering submitting a VMPU offer, please read the relevant section in the guidance on the use of enforcement action before completing and submitting your offer of variable monetary penalty undertaking form (pdf 357kB).

Published information on penalties and undertakings

Enforcement measures

We have committed to publishing a range of enforcement activities in our policy for communicating penalties and undertakings (pdf 260kB). This includes:

Civil sanctions

We also publish information on civil penalties for the following regimes:

Contact us

For more information or on enforcement please contact us.