Blog
A nervous disposition
Daniel Staunton
7 April 2021
Environmental Law Quarterly Update - Q1 2021
This quarterly environmental law update provides a summary of a cross section of news stories in the period Jan 2021 - March 2021.
1 April 2021
Arrests of care home workers following COVID-19 outbreaks: a review of criminal liability
In late February 2021 a news article reported that a care home worker had been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter after a patient died of COVID-19. In late March 2021, two further care home workers were arrested on suspicion of wilful neglect. We look at how those working in care homes can potentially face criminal liability in respect of COVID-19 cases.
1 March 2021
Thames Water fined for “entirely foreseeable” pollution
Thames Water was sentenced on Friday 26 February 2021 to a fine of £2.3m and ordered to pay costs of almost £90,000. The case is noteworthy both because of the level of the fine imposed and because the Environment Agency (“EA”) uses criminal prosecutions as a means of enforcement relatively rarely.
17 December 2020
You are what you package your food in - Food Standards Agency consults on changes to food contact materials offences
On 4 November 2020, the Food Standards Agency (“FSA”) launched a consultation seeking views on proposed changes to the offences for non-compliance under the Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (England) Regulations 2012 (the “Regulations”).
4 December 2020
Return to sender: Illegal waste exports are returned to the UK
On 28 October 2020 the Environment Agency (“EA”) announced that a consignment of 21 waste containers, which were illegally shipped to Sri Lanka in 2017, had been successfully returned to their point of origin in the UK.