The contaminated land regime: time for a regime that is fit for purpose (Part 1)

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this article is to examine the regime to remediate contaminated land in the UK set out in Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and to analyse the UK Government’s intent and objectives in introducing the regime. The legislative provisions and the statutory guidance that accompanies that legislation are then analysed to determine whether those objectives could have been met. Design/methodology/approach - A research approach was taken to trace the legislative history of Part 2A and to analyse the statutory provisions and the statutory guidance. The approach included researching Parliamentary debates on the statute, consultations on the statutory guidance, other information published by the UK Government, commentaries on the regime, and contaminated land regimes in other jurisdictions. Findings - The paper found that the introduction of a contaminated land regime that delegates primary implementation and enforcement authority to local authorities, and that severely limits their discretion in doing so, has resulted in a regime that has proven to be unworkable in practice and that has failed to meet its objectives. Originality/value - The article is the first paper to examine the legislative intent and objectives behind Part 2A and to analyse their effect on the provisions in the statute and the statutory guidance and their implementation and enforcement.