Our Environmental Aspects Training for ISO 14001:2015  has been created for anyone who needs to know more about environmental aspects or wants to refresh their knowledge.

In this course you will learn how to build the environmental aspects register for your organisation from start to finish, allowing you to get stuck in and gain valuable feedback from our experienced consultants. (Even if you already have a register, you will pick up tips to improve and refresh your current register.)

Our aspects course has been built “remote first”, meaning we’ve tailored this course to be delivered virtually via Microsoft Teams. We’ve also split the course over two half-day sessions to help ease the burden on your schedule and to avoid training fatigue. Our consultants are qualified virtual trainers, and as a team, we know that attendees get more out of this format than an all-day remote training course.

To book on to the course or for more information, visit the course page below.

The Grenfell Tower disaster on 14th June 2017 provided the catalyst for significant change in building safety regulation across the UK. These changes aim to ensure that this type of catastrophic disaster will never occur again.

You may recall that last month we published an article on the changes and what you can expect to happen.

As promised, we’ve put together a pre-recorded webinar that discusses these changes and explains the new duties that have been introduced. You can watch the webinar right away by clicking the button below.

By now, we are sure that you know that 100% of all profits generated by our business are gift aided to our parent charity, Newground Together.

Newground Together, is a charity operating in the North of England that aims to create better lives and opportunities for our communities.

As a charity, Newground Together undertakes activities in the following areas.

• Protecting and conserving the natural environment for public benefit.
• Urban and rural regeneration in areas of economic deprivation.
• Providing recreational facilities in the interests of social welfare.
• Advancing the life chances of young people.
• Education and training.

Here’s a quick overview what Newground Together achieved in 2021/2022 and the work that the charity carried out. This couldn’t have happened without your support.

Just to put that into perspective, this is what the charity has achieved because of your business. 

Without your support we really wouldn’t be able to make a difference in the lives of so many. For that, we want to say a massive thank you for your continued support.

Jurisdiction: Scotland

Commencement: 1^st June 2022

Amends:

• Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003
• The Protection of Water Against Agricultural Nitrate Pollution (Scotland) Regulations 1996
• Water Environment (Register of Protected Areas) (Scotland) Regulations 2004
• The Water Environment (Shellfish Water Protected Areas: Environmental Objectives etc.) (Scotland) Regulations 2013
• Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009
• The Environmental Noise (Scotland) Regulations 2006
• The Air Quality Standards (Scotland) Regulations 2010

Mini Summary

• The Air Quality Standards (Scotland) Regulations 2010 Regulations set limits, targets and objected for ambient air quality. Scottish Ministers are required to divide Scotland into zones and agglomerations. They also set new air quality standards along with target dates for micro fine particles.

Amendment

Jurisdiction: Great Britain

Commencement: 1^st July 2022

Amends: The Green Gas Support Scheme Regulations 2021
Mini Summary

Jurisdiction: Republic of Ireland

Commencement: April 2022

Amends: Planning and Development Regulations 2001
Mini Summary

Jurisdiction: UK

Commencement: 14^th April 2022

Amends: The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Order 2020
Mini Summary

Jurisdiction: Great Britain

Commencement: 1^st July 2022

Amends: The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986
Mini Summary

As part of our commitment to our customers, 100% of all profits generated by The Compliance People are gift-aided to our parent charity, Newground Together. Every month, we like to take a moment to show how your support has helped others.

This month we take a look at how the “More Positive Together Steps” program put together by our parent charity has given people the skills to enter the workplace.

In February 2022, Blackburn resident Favour received a text about an education course that Newground Together was delivering. The More Positive Together course was created to offer residents in some of the most deprived areas the chance to improve their skills and employment prospects.

Favour, who has three children, had recently started volunteering for Refugee and Asylum seekers organisations, one of which was DARE (Darwen Asylum Refugee Enterprises). Favour became passionate about helping people with mental health problems and was involved in various voluntary activities to support vulnerable groups. She also went on to study at Blackburn College for her English, Maths and ICT.

After finishing the More Positive Together course, Favour met with Newground Together Senior Employability advisor Zainab to update her CV and add the five education qualifications she had just acquired. Favour was nervous but very excited about the opportunities this gave her as she was keen to pursue a career in education.

Favour was keen to get started, and with support from Newground Together, she immediately applied for various roles in schools across Blackburn.

Favour very quickly received responses from the applications she had made and, at one point, received three interviews in one week!

Having cared for her own children, Favour had never attended a job interview. To help prepare Favour and ease any nerves, Zainab from Newground Together hosted some mock interviews. This process massively eased Favours nerves. She performed brilliantly at the interviews and was offered three jobs!

Favour swiftly accepted two of these jobs, one as a welfare assistant post in a school and another as a play worker at Blackburn Youth Zone.

Favour said, “Without the education course, application support and interview preparation, I believe I would not have secured employment.”

When asked what difference this has made to her life she said, “It will make all the difference as my confidence and my wellbeing has improved so much and I now know that I can achieve anything I want and more! Above all else my children are so proud of me and that gives me hope for them and the future.”

Are you a UK company which handles or supplies packaging? New Regulations are set to come in which will change the way in which you are responsible for your packaging recycling responsibility. Get prepared for extended producer responsibility now.

With there being a strong focus on waste production in the UK, the new Regulations are set to change the way UK businesses handling or suppling packaging must manage their recycling responsibilities, through the adoption of an extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme.
What is EPR?
EPR is an environmental policy approach which requires producers to be responsible for the packaging they place on the UK market, at the end of its life. It seeks to achieve a reduction in the environmental impact of products throughout their life cycle, from production through to end-of-life. EPR follows the ‘polluter pays’ principle, if you produce the pollution, you should bear the costs of managing the impact on the environment and human health. Under EPR proposals, packaging producers will be made responsible for the entire cost of recycling the packaging they place on the market; this includes the cost of collection, treatment, and recycling.

The new EPR system will replace the current Packaging Waste Regulations with a phased implementation from 2023.
Do you need to take action?
Current, guidance states this change will affect all UK organisations which handle* or supply packaging.
*Under the current Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007, handling activities are explained Schedule 1.

The size of your organisation (small or large) will determine the actions you need to take.

You will be classed as a small organisation if either of the following apply:

• your annual turnover is between £1 million and £2 million, and you are responsible for handling and supplying 25 tonnes + of empty packaging or packaged goods through the UK market in a calendar year; or
• your annual turnover is over £1 million and you are responsible for handling and supplying between 25 tonnes and 50 tonnes of empty packaging or packaged goods through the UK market in a calendar year.

You will be classed as a large organisation if both of the following apply:

• your annual turnover is £2 million or more; and
• you are responsible for handling and supplying more than 50 tonnes of empty packaging or packaged goods in the UK in a calendar year.

What action do I need to take?
The size of your organisation will determine the duties and actions you have and the dates whereby you need to comply with these.

Small organisations:

To comply you must:

• take steps to record data about all the empty packaging and packaged goods you handle and supply through the UK market from 1st January 2023;
• register for the EPR for packaging online service (registration opens for small organisations in 2024);
• pay an annual fee to the environmental regulator from 2024; and
• submit data about empty packaging and packaged goods you handled or supplied through the UK market throughout 2023.

You’ll need to submit your 2023 data between 1st January 2024 and 1 April 2024. Missed payments will result in a penalty charge.

Large organisations

To comply you must:

• take steps to record data about the empty packaging and packaged goods you handle and supply in the UK from 1st January 2023;
• register for the EPR for packaging online service from April 2023;
• pay a fee to the environmental regulator;
• buy packaging waste recycling notes (PRNs) or packaging waste export recycling notes (PERNs) to meet your recycling obligations; and
• submit data about empty packaging and packaged goods you handled or supplied through the UK market.

You’ll need to submit data every 6 months.

Organisations selling goods in the UK, including Distributors, Retailers, Online Marketplaces, and Sellers may also need to submit ‘nation data’ (separate volumes and material types of packaging placed on the market, broken down into England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland). 2023 data will need to be submitted by December 2024.

Organisations may use a compliance scheme to complete certain steps on their behalf.

If you handle and supply any packaging that is collected by local authorities from households or street bins, from April 2024 you must pay the scheme administrator a fee for this.

The current guidance states these Regulations will not apply to charities.

The specific packaging activities which will come under these Regulations include:

• packaging own-brand products to sell to UK consumers;
• using a third party to package and sell own-brand goods to UK consumers;
• using ‘transit packaging’ to protect goods during transport so they can be sold to UK consumers;
• importing own-brand and third-party packaged products into the UK to sell to consumers, unless doing so on behalf of a third party (such as a supermarket);
• allowing third parties based outside the UK to sell packaged products or empty packaging through an online marketplace that you own;
• hiring or loaning out reusable packaging to UK third parties; and
• making and then selling empty packaging to third-party organisations that do not need to take action under the regulations.

Further guidance on EPR can be found on the Governments website.

All UK organisations which handle, or supply packaging will need to comply with the new EPR regulations in some way. These Regulations have not yet been published and are expected to be published in 2022 – 2023.