The directors of thousands of businesses risk getting criminal records if they accidentally misreport their energy consumption and carbon emissions.
A new paper published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation reveals that a little-noticed Statutory Regulation introduced in 2018, and coming into effect in April 2019, has made it a criminal offense, punishable by an unlimited fine, to misreport the energy and carbon dioxide emissions of their business.
Over 10,000 companies, Limited Liability Partnerships, and unregistered companies are caught by the rules.
This extraordinary development is the unexpected outcome of a process started by the Treasury in 2015 with an entirely different objective, the simplification of energy and carbon reporting requirements.
However, this well-intentioned proposal was turned through 180 degrees when the development of the legislation was removed from the Treasury and transferred by Mrs. May to the newly created Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in 2016.
Far from simplifying the law, as the Treasury intended, BEIS deliberately expanded the scope, catching thousands of more businesses in the criminal net.
According to the report’s author, Dr. John Constable, the regulations are an open invitation to vexatious litigation:
“By a disproportionate use of criminal sanctions, Government has created a pressure point allowing Green activists and industrial competitors to threaten businesses with vexatious ‘lawfare’. Carbon reporting is not straightforward, and errors are almost inevitable in spite of best efforts.”
GWPF director Dr. Benny Peiser said:
“The Conservatives are still widely seen as supporters of entrepreneurial private ownership. In reality, they have often pursued a quasi-socialist agenda that puts climate activists first. This legislation is deeply illiberal and a threat to future investment, innovation and economic growth in the UK.”
John Constable: A little nudge with a big stick: Misreporting energy use and emissions is now a crime in the UK (pdf)
The biggist Climate Crinimals is from Greenpeace their sure producing lot of Greenhouse Gases sailing all over the the globe in their Fossil Fuels Ships Arctic Sunrise and Rainbow Warrior II as well as those Zodiacs they luanch