asked the Minister for the Environment if he will increase the fines chargeable for litter offences.
Written Answers. - Litter and Dumping Offences.
55.
A review of legislation relating to certain aspects of pollution control which is in hand in my Department will include consideration of the level of fines for litter offences. I must add that I am not sure that the level of fine provided for is the main problem: at present a maximum fine of £10 may be imposed but fines of this order are not usually imposed when local authorities bring prosecutions for litter offences.
56.
asked the Minister for the Environment the maximum fine chargeable for dumping offences.
Under the European Communities (Waste) Regulations, 1979, the maximum penalty which a holder of waste may incur on summary conviction if he contravenes Article 3 of the regulations, which requires him to dispose of waste in a manner which will not endanger human health or harm the environment, is a fine not exceeding £600 or, at the discretion of the court, imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both such fine and such imprisonment.
Under the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act, 1977, a person who causes or permits noxious or polluting matter to enter waters commits an offence which in the case of summary conviction makes him liable to a fine not exceeding £250 together with a further fine not exceeding £100 for every day on which the offence continues, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or, at the discretion of the court, to both such fine and such imprisonment. On conviction on indictment the corresponding limits are £5,000, £500 and two years.