Consultation on UK Penalties

A UK Government consultation into how the UK intends implement the F gas Regulation closed in August 2007. This included the draft domestic Regulations (The Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulations 2008)  which prescribe offences and penalties applicable to infringements of the EC Regulation in England, Scotland and Wales. DEFRA are currently considering responses and a consultation summary and Government response will be published shortly. DEFRA expect the domestic Regulations to come into force early in the new year.

Operators of relevant systems covered by the EC Regulation have a range of obligations including prompt leakage repair, leakage checking and record keeping and ensuring appropriately qualified personnel are used. The UK Regulations provide enforcement powers to ensure compliance with these obligations.Different sectors have different obligations and it is recommended that all stakeholder review the useful documents section for further information.

Enforcement of the F gas Regulation will follow a risk-based enforcement model and details of the intelligence work undertaken which informed this approach can be downloaded below:

 

Implementation of Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases and Ozone-Depleting Substances Regulations - initial market intelligence work and risk-based implementation model (PDF 900 KB) - December 2007

 

 

 

DEFRA issued a separate consultation paper which also closed in August 2007, dealing with implementation issues relating to the EC Regulation 2037/2000 on substances that deplete the ozone layer:  

The proposals in the ozone consultation paper affect some but not all of the sectors covered by the F-gas consultation, notably pest control businesses using the ozone-depleting substance methyl bromide, which is why separate consultation papers were published.