Originally published in BLG's Environment and Health & Safety Digest, Autumn 2007
The
House of Lords judgment in the eagerly anticipated "leapfrog" appeal
in R (on the application of National Grid Gas PLC) v Environment
Agency was
handed down on 27 June 2007.
The
case considered whether successor companies to former public utilities can be
required to step into the shoes of their polluting predecessors and clean up
contaminated land under Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990
("Part IIA") as if they had been the original polluter.
Under
Part IIA, those who "caused or knowingly permitted" the substances by
reason of which land is contaminated, to be in, on or under that land are
"appropriate persons". Where they can be found, they should bear
liability for clean up. Where they cannot be found, innocent current owners and
occupiers are liable. A former gasworks site in Bawtry, Doncaster had been
redeveloped in the late 1960s as residential housing, but
