Recommendation 1

The Committee understands the case for ensuring the worst types of environmental harm are dealt with effectively, under the criminal law, including offences that could be labelled as ecocide. On this specific Bill, evidence is finely balanced. Environmental regulators and prosecutors did not see a clear enforcement gap, as they consider that existing legislation, including section 40 of the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, appears incapable in principle of addressing even in the case of very serious environmental harm. Witnesses also struggled to identify Scottish cases that would have met the proposed ecocide threshold, even going back several years.