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Businesses responsible for causing damage to the environment will be forced to foot the bill for their actions, a leading North East insurance firm has warned.
New rules governing who should pay up in cases of pollution are now in force – and they make the position of companies’ liability in such instances much clearer.
The Environmental Damage Regulations, which follow on from a European directive, are based on the principle that ‘the polluter pays’.
Firms involved in activities that lead to environmental damage will have to meet the cost of work to remedy the situation.
Under the regulations, damage to the environment covers a wide range of scenarios, such as contamination of land where there is a serious risk to human health, discharges to water and negative impacts on wildlife habitats and protected species.
As well as setting out ‘the polluter pays’ approach, the regulations also outline how companies must take action to prevent pollution before it occurs and have strict procedures in place to report incidents.
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