The Environment Agency confirms fines totalling more than £350,000

9th December 2014

The Environment Agency has confirmed that they have issued fines totalling more than £350,000 to 10 companies who failed to meet their reporting requirements under the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme. Fines were issued for failure to submit an annual report or footprint report on time, with 6 of the companies receiving penalties for both. The highest fine issued in the past year was almost £180,000 to Harbour Exchange Management Company for annual reporting breaches.

The CRC scheme requires companies with at least one half hourly meter and using more than 6000 MWh of electricity p.a. to submit a report about its energy supplies and purchase allowances to equal the CO2 emissions it generated. It has a high compliance rate of 97% in 2013/14 however that is down from 99% in the previous year. The EA can issue civil penalties for a range of compliance failures and can also publish on its website the name of the organisation receiving the civil penalty, details of the failure, and the penalty amount. Such details are usually published for at least one year.