The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Regulations 2012

Regulation 40

SCHEDULE 10 Aircraft operating bans

Application for an operating ban

1.—(1) Where the Secretary of State intends to make a request to the European Commission under Article 16(5) of the Directive to impose an operating ban on a UK administered operator (“ A”), the Secretary of State must first—

(a) receive consent from—

(i) the Scottish Ministers, where SEPA is the regulator;

(ii) the Welsh Ministers, where A’s registered office is in Wales;

(iii) the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland, where the chief inspector is the regulator; and

(b) give notice to the regulator.

(2) A notice under sub-paragraph (1)(b) may require relevant information to be provided to the Secretary of State by a deadline specified in the notice, and may require in particular—

(a) evidence that A has not complied with obligations under these Regulations; and

(b) details of any enforcement action against A that has been taken by the regulator.

(3) Following the giving of notice under sub-paragraph (1)(b) and, where applicable, the provision of information under sub-paragraph (2), the Secretary of State must give notice to A.

(4) A notice under sub-paragraph (3) must—

(a) include a copy of any information provided under sub-paragraph (2);

(b) include a copy of the request that the Secretary of State intends to send to the European Commission;

(c) give A an opportunity to make representations before the Secretary of State makes the request; and

(d) set out the deadline by which those representations must be made.

Enforcement of an operating ban

2.—(1) Where the European Commission has adopted a decision to impose an operating ban on a person (“ P”) under Article 16(10) of the Directive, the regulator must take all reasonable steps to ensure that P does not operate a flight that departs from or arrives in the United Kingdom.

(2) The steps a regulator may take under sub-paragraph (1) include—

(a) subject to sub-paragraph (3), issuing to aerodrome operators (or to any other person) any direction that the regulator deems necessary to enforce the ban;

(b) detaining and selling any aircraft of which P is the operator, in accordance with regulation 39(1)(b) and Schedule 9.

(3) Before issuing a direction under sub-paragraph (2)(a) the regulator must receive approval from the authority and (where different) the relevant authority.

(4) A person to whom a direction is issued under sub-paragraph (2)(a)—

(a) must comply with that direction, but

(b) is entitled to recover from the regulator a sum equal to any expense reasonably incurred by that person in complying with the direction.

(5) The regulator is entitled to recover as a civil debt from the operator concerned all sums incurred under sub-paragraph (4).

(6) In sub-paragraph (3) “relevant authority” means, where the principal place of business of the person to be directed is—

(a) in Wales, the Welsh Ministers;

(b) in Scotland, the Scottish Ministers;

(c) in Northern Ireland, the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland;

(d) not in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, the Secretary of State.