Environmental Liability

The Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) is aimed at the prevention and remedying of environmental damage.

For the purposes of the ELD, environmental damage is:

• Damage which has significant adverse effects on reaching or maintaining favourable conservation status of species and natural habitats protected under EC legislation;
  
• Damage that significantly adversely affects the ecological, chemical and/or quantitative status and/or ecological potential of waters falling within the scope of the water framework directive.
  
• Land contamination that creates a significant risk of human health being adversely affected as a result of direct or indirect introduction in, on or under land of substances, preparations, organisms and micro-organisms.

The Department, in collaboration with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Welsh Assembly Government issued the first of two public consultations on the transposition of the Environmental Liability Directive, between November 2006 and February 2007.  

The Department is currently considering a number of policy issues as a result of the responses to the first public consultation. It is our intention to issue a second consultation on draft legislation and guidance at the earliest opportunity. ELD Regulations will apply only to incidents which take place after the Regulations come into operation. In the interim, existing environmental protection legislation remains in place to address incidents of environmental damage.

The first consultation document, accompanied by the RIA can be downloaded below.

Environmental Liability Directive Consultation Document (1.33MB)

The Department has analysed the responses to the Consultation on Options for Implementing the Environmental Liability Directive.  A copy of this document can be found by accessing the following link.

Analysis of ELD Consultation responses (100KB)