An appeal against any decision of a magistrates’ court in pursuance of this Act (other than a decision made in criminal proceedings) shall lie to the Crown Court at the instance of any party to the proceedings in which the decision was given if such an appeal does not lie to the Crown Court by virtue of any other enactment.

In Scotland an appeal against any decision of the sheriff in pursuance of this Act (other than a decision made in criminal proceedings) shall lie to the Court of Session at the instance of any party to the proceedings in which the decision was given if such an appeal does not lie to the Court of Session by virtue of any other enactment.

Where a person appeals to the Crown Court or the Court of Session against a decision of a magistrates’ court or the sheriff dismissing an appeal against a notice served in pursuance of this Act which was suspended pending determination of that appeal, the notice shall again be suspended pending the determination of the appeal to the Crown Court or Court of Session.

When an offence under this Act which has been committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate or any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of that offence and be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members the preceding provisions of this subsection shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his functions of management as if he were a director of the body corporate.

Where the commission by any person of an offence under this Act is due to the act or default of some other person, that other person shall be guilty of the offence; and a person may be charged with and convicted of an offence by virtue of this subsection whether or not proceedings for the offence are taken against any other person.

Notwithstanding anything in F7section 127(1) of the M5Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980, a magistrates’ court in England and Wales may try an information for an offence under . . . F8 section 31(1) of this Act or regulations or byelaws made in pursuance of section 31 of this Act if the information is laid within one year from the commission of the offence; and notwithstanding anything in section 23 of the M6Summary Jurisdiction (Scotland) Act 1954, summary proceedings in Scotland for any such offence may be commenced at any time within one year from the time when the offence was committed, and subsection (2) of section 23 of the said Act of 1954 shall apply for the purposes of this subsection, in its application to Scotland, as that subsection applies for the purposes of that section.

Where an appeal against a decision of a relevant authority lies to a magistrates’ court by virtue of any provision of this Act, it shall be the duty of the authority to include in any document by which it notifies the decision to the person concerned a statement indicating that such an appeal lies as aforesaid and specifying the time within which it must be brought.

Where on an appeal to any court against or arising out of a decision of a relevant authority in pursuance of this Act the court varies or reverses the decision it shall be the duty of the authority to act in accordance with the court’s decision.

A judge of any court and a justice of the peace shall not be disqualified from acting in cases arising under this Act by reason of his being, as one of several ratepayers or as one of any other class of persons, liable in common with the others to contribute to or be benefited by any rate or fund out of which any expenses of a relevant authority are to be defrayed.

The matters which under paragraphs (a) to (c) of subsection (4) of section 3 of this Act may be proved by way of defence to a charge of committing an offence under subsection (3) of that section may be proved also by way of defence to an action brought by virtue of the preceding subsection (the reference in the said paragraph (a) to the charge being construed as a reference to the act alleged to give rise to the liability).

In this section—

• “damage” includes the death of, or injury to, any person (including any disease and any impairment of physical or mental condition);

• “fault” has the same meaning as in the M1Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945; and

• “land” includes such water as is mentioned in section 4(4) of this Act.

Subsection (1) of this section is without prejudice to any liability which arises apart from the provisions of this section.

Any sums received by the Secretary of State by virtue of this Act shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

Where a sum is payable to a water authority by any person by virtue of this Act in respect of the expenses incurred by the authority, the authority shall be entitled to recover from that person such a further sum in respect of its establishment charges as appears to the authority to be reasonable.

In the application of this section to Scotland, for the references to a water authority there shall be substituted references to a river purification board established under section 135 of the M9Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.

A warrant issued in pursuance of this section shall continue in force until the purpose for which the entry is required has been satisfied.

A person authorised to enter upon any land or vessel in pursuance of the preceding section shall, if so required, produce evidence of his authority before he enters upon the land or vessel.

A person so authorised may take with him on to the land or vessel in question such other persons and such equipment as may be necessary.

Admission to any land or vessel used for residential purposes and admission with heavy equipment to any other land or vessel shall not, except in an emergency or in a case where the land or vessel is unoccupied, be demanded as of right in pursuance of subsection (1) of the preceding section unless a notice of the intended entry has been served on the occupier not less than seven days before the demand.

A person who, in the exercise of powers conferred on him by virtue of the preceding section or this section, enters upon any land or vessel which is unoccupied or of which the occupier is temporarily absent shall leave the land or vessel as effectually secured against trespassers as he found it.

A person who wilfully obstructs another person acting in the exercise of any powers conferred on the other person by virtue of the preceding section or this section shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding F3£100F3level 3 on the standard scale.

In the preceding section and this section any reference to an emergency is a reference to a case where a person requiring entry to any land or vessel has reasonable cause to believe that circumstances exist which are likely to endanger life or health and that immediate entry to the land or vessel is necessary to verify the existence of those circumstances or to ascertain their cause or to effect a remedy.

Subject to the following subsection, a relevant authority may serve on any person a notice requiring him to furnish to the authority, within a period or at times specified in the notice and in a form so specified, any information so specified which the authority reasonably considers that it needs for the purposes of any function conferred on the authority by this Act.

Provision may be made by regulations for restricting the information which may be required in pursuance of the preceding subsection and for determining the form in which the information is to be so required.

In the application of this section to Scotland, in subsection (1) the reference to this Act shall include a reference to the M11Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) (Scotland) Act 1951 F14and a reference to Part II of the Natural Heritage (Scotland) Act 1991.

If a person discloses information relating to any trade secret used in carrying on a particular undertaking and the information has been given to him or obtained by him by virtue of this Act he shall, subject to the following subsection, be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding F4level 5 on the standard scale.

In the application of this section to Scotland, in subsection (1) the reference to this Act shall include a reference to the M4Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) (Scotland) Act 1951 F5and a reference to Part II of the Natural Heritage (Scotland) Act 1991.

The Secretary of State may cause a local inquiry to be held in any case in which he considers it appropriate for such an inquiry to be held either in connection with a provision of this Act or with a view to preventing or dealing with pollution F15other than air pollution or noise at any place.

Subsections (2) to (5) of section 250 of the M12Local Government Act 1972 (which contain supplementary provisions with respect to local inquiries held in pursuance of that section) shall, without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) of that section, apply to inquiries in England and Wales in pursuance of the preceding subsection as they apply to inquiries in pursuance of that section F16but as if the reference to a local authority in subsection (4) included a reference to a water authority.

Subsections (2) to (8) of section 210 of the M13Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (local inquiries) shall, without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) of that section, apply to inquiries in Scotland in pursuance of subsection (1) of this section as they apply to inquiries held in pursuance of that section but as if the reference to a local authority in subsection (7) included a reference to a river purification authority.

If the Secretary of State is satisfied that any other relevant authority has failed to perform any functions which it ought to have performed, he may make an order declaring the authority to be in default.

An order made by virtue of the preceding subsection which declares an authority to be in default may, for the purpose of remedying the default, direct the authority (hereafter in this section referred to as “the defaulting authority”) to perform such of its functions as are specified in the order and may specify the manner in which and the time or times within which those functions are to be performed by the authority.

If the defaulting authority fails to comply with any direction contained in such an order the Secretary of State may, instead of enforcing the order by mandamus, make an order transferring to himself such of the functions of the authority as he thinks fit.

Where any functions of the defaulting authority are transferred in pursuance of the preceding subsection, the amount of any expenses which the Secretary of State certifies were incurred by him in performing those functions shall on demand be paid to him by the defaulting authority.

Any expenses which in pursuance of the preceding subsection are required to be paid by the defaulting authority in respect of any functions transferred in pursuance of this section shall be defrayed by the authority in the like manner, and shall be debited to the like account, as if the functions had not been transferred and the expenses had been incurred by the authority in performing them; and the authority shall have the like powers for the purpose of raising any money required in pursuance of this subsection as the authority would have had for the purpose of raising money required for defraying expenses incurred for the purposes of the functions in question.

An order transferring any functions of the defaulting authority in pursuance of subsection (3) of this section may provide for the transfer to the Secretary of State of such of the property, rights, liabilities and obligations of the authority as he considers appropriate; and where such an order is revoked the Secretary of State may, by the revoking order or a subsequent order, make such provision as he considers appropriate with respect to any property, rights, liabilities and obligations held by him for the purposes of the transferred functions.

The Secretary of State may by order vary or revoke any order previously made by him in pursuance of this section.

In this section “functions”, in relation to an authority, means functions conferred on the authority by virtue of this Act.

This section shall not apply to Scotland.