Part IIA as a Regulatory System

Although Part IIA is essentially an enforcement regime, it is intended to play a part in encouraging the voluntary remediation of land affected by contamination. For example, the discussion above of the Government s objectives in introducing Part IIA noted the role in this process of reducing uncertainties about residual liabilities on brownfield development sites. 

Even within the Part IIA system there are opportunities for voluntary action to replace formal enforcement action. There is, in particular, a requirement for enforcing authorities to consult those who will have to pay for remediation before serving any remediation notice. This consultation process is intended not only to enable technical issues to be resolved before there is any need to invoke formal appeals procedures, but also to give landowners and others the opportunity to 

In any case where voluntary remediation action is taking place on land that has been formally determined to be contaminated land , those carrying out the remediation are required to prepare and publish a remediation statement describing the work. This is then included on the enforcing authority s register, not only to make sure that the information contained on the register is as comprehensive as possible, but in particular to ensure that there is transparency and accountability in the way this part of the regime operates. 

The main regulatory roles under Part IIA fall to local authorities. As the Environment Act 1995 which introduced Part IIA also created the Environment Agencies, there was clearly an opportunity to give this role to the these new Agencies. However, a deliberate decision was taken to give the main role to local authorities. This reflected the following factors  

Additional funding has been provided to local authorities to reflect their new duties under the Part IIA regime. A total of 12 million per annum has been added to totals for standard spending assessments for revenue expenditure this is then reflected in the provision of Revenue Support Grant. Actual decisions on allocations of revenue budgets between different service sectors are the responsibility of individual local authorities—the additional funding is not ring-fenced. 

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