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Polluters in Britain are going unpunished and factories are not being
inspected, while progress towards integrated pollution control has stalled
because the country’s pollution police, the Pollution Inspectorate, is seriously
understaffed. These are the findings of the National Audit Office in a report
on the inspectorate published this week.

The NAO points out that the inspectorate needs twice its current staff
by 1994 to fulfil its role of monitoring compliance with the Environment
Protection Act, 1990.

The inspectorate was formed in 1987 to unify monitoring of air, water,
waste and radio active pollution, but the NAO found neglect in some areas
of inspection – particularly air – as the inspectorate focuses its limited
resources on ‘priority’ areas, such as inspecting nuclear sites.

The NAO’s report also found inconsistencies in decisions to prosecute
factories for air pollution. Inspectors ‘let people get away with it in
some parts of the country and jump on them in others’, said a spokesman
for the NAO.