The Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill is likely to become law in October 2008.  It will bring changes to the way in which businesses are regulated by regulators such as HSE and the Environment Agency.  It will enable regulators to impose greater sanctions on businesses for regulatory non-compliance.

It is thought that fines imposed by Courts often fail to act as a sufficient deterrent therefore the increased powers for the regulators to enable them to impose greater monetary penalties and the making available of a wider variety of sanctions as an alternative to criminal prosecutions will form a greater deterrent and at the same time free-up Court time.

In addition to monetary penalties regulators will be able to use compliance or restoration notices or stop notices.  Businesses will also be able to enter into enforcement undertakings which the regulators can choose to accept as an alternative to imposing a sanction.

It therefore remains to be seen if pursuing breaches through the civil sanctioning regime will create a speedy and more efficient procedure for regulators trying to enforce against non-compliance, as opposed to using the criminal Courts.

Although the bill introduces wider discretionary powers for regulators, some might argue it does so without the necessary safeguards of the criminal prosecution.

It may well be that early negotiations with the regulatory authority could be directly beneficial for the recipient of any sanction and it may also bring any cost advantages if it could be shown that the regulator continued to uphold the sanction unreasonably, should the matter be appealed.