Environmental Management Systems

The Environment Agency has always supported the use of environmental management systems in controlling environmental risks and is committed to encouraging industry to incorporate these systems for their potential benefits in their businesses.

One of the criticisms of the Agency is that whilst it recognises such a system in its Operator Risk Assessment Scheme, it does not take account of the implementation of that system in its regulatory activities. Organisations that have gone to the trouble and expense of implementing an environmental management system are keen for their efforts and expense to be recognised by the regulators. They claim that the systematic approach to controlling risks and the rigour offered by an externally verified environmental management system makes them less of a risk to the environment.

The Agency sees a number of advantages in taking account of the use of environmental management systems in setting the level of regulatory oversight. The most obvious benefit from its point of view is that by offering a company with a registered environmental management and audit scheme a lighter regulatory touch, it will be able to concentrate its resources on less well-managed areas.

However, the Agency states that the most significant benefit will be to the company that implements the environmental management and audit system in that the number of external inspections could be reduced. The interruption to business caused by various external inspections for regulatory and auditing purposes should not be underestimated.

Perhaps one of the main problems is that environmental management audit schemes or systems are designed for an internal audience and the public rarely sees how they operate or the information that they generate. At a time when the Agency is calling for transparency, it may be difficult to retain public confidence if this information does not become publicly available.

It will be interesting to see how the Environment Agency will move this research project forward whilst retaining public confidence in its approach to regulation.
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