The bosses of water companies that pollute waterways could go to prison under a new law the British government says will help clean up the country’s sewage-clogged rivers, lakes and beaches.
A bill introduced in Parliament on Thursday will give regulators the ability to ban bonuses for executives of polluting firms and bring criminal charges against lawbreakers, with the possibility of up to two years’ imprisonment for executives who obstruct investigations.
The state of Britain’s waterways made a stink during the campaign for a July 4 national election. For critics of the Conservative Party that had been in office since 2010, dirty water was a pungent symbol of Britain’s aging infrastructure and the effects of privatization of essential utilities.
Beware new laws! we already have industry and environmental regulation overlapping with general laws. Lack of enforcement is the problem
Do any of those laws already on the books threaten management with jail time?
what do prisons achieve?
Big bosses will do anything to avoid prison … even follow laws.
That’s what prisons achieve in this context.
Ah, i see. build empty prisons as a deterrent to the rich. brilliant! simply brilliant!
Does the UK not have any prisons? Really??
I know they do, so why build any more?? The bosses can do their time in gen pop, just like anyone else.
Interestingly, it seems the last government were sitting on a massive prison overcrowding crisis, and there is now talk of sending prisoners to Estonian prisons to ease it.
To be honest, I’d imagine that’d be an even stronger deterrent for these pissbags. I can’t imagine an Estonian prison being very accommodating!
Deterrence.