❓ A WA parliamentary question on notice regarding the Department of Environmental Regulation's field inspections and handling of complaints related to licenses issued under the Environmental Protection Act 1986. The department provided some data but declined to provide a breakdown of complaints by license type due to resource constraints.
AnsweredQoN 5380Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
(1) How many people were undertaking field inspections for the Department of Environmental Regulation on: (a) 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 Feb 2016; (b) 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 Nov 2015; and (c) 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 Aug 2015? (2) For the years 2014/15; 2013/14; 2012/13; 2011/12 can you confirm for each type of licence issued under Part 5 of the Environmental Protection Act 1986 : (a) how
many complaints were received by the Department of Environmental Regulation/Department of Environment and Conservation; (b) how
many licences were the subject of complaint; (c) how
many resulted in the following actions: (i) letters of warning; (ii) infringements; (iii) licence review/amendments; (iv) environmental field notice; (v) compliance inspection; and (vi) corrective
action; and (d) for each category of licence issued under Part 5 of the Environmental Protection Act 1986 : (i) how many are still active; and (ii) between 1 July 2014 and 1 July 2015, how many sites were physically inspected?
many complaints were received by the Department of Environmental Regulation/Department of Environment and Conservation; (b) how
many licences were the subject of complaint; (c) how
many resulted in the following actions: (i) letters of warning; (ii) infringements; (iii) licence review/amendments; (iv) environmental field notice; (v) compliance inspection; and (vi) corrective
action; and (d) for each category of licence issued under Part 5 of the Environmental Protection Act 1986 : (i) how many are still active; and (ii) between 1 July 2014 and 1 July 2015, how many sites were physically inspected?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
10 May 2016
Responded by
Minister for Environment
Response time
34 days
(1) The number of staff attending compliance inspections is as follows:
(a) 2 February 2016: 14 officers
3 February 2016: 10 officers
4 February 2016: 10 officers
5 February 2016: 1 officer
6 February 2016: Nil officers
(b)-(c) Nil.
(2)(a)-(c) The information requested cannot be provided by licence type as the Department’s Incident and Complaints Management System does not record a complaint by licence type. Each complaint would need to be interrogated individually to determine if it was related to a licence type and collation of this information is a resource intensive task that will involve substantial resources and I am not prepared to divert valuable staff resources away from other duties to this task.
(d)
(i) As at 12 May 2016, there were 949 licences and 550 works approvals active.
(ii) 671 sites.
(a) 2 February 2016: 14 officers
3 February 2016: 10 officers
4 February 2016: 10 officers
5 February 2016: 1 officer
6 February 2016: Nil officers
(b)-(c) Nil.
(2)(a)-(c) The information requested cannot be provided by licence type as the Department’s Incident and Complaints Management System does not record a complaint by licence type. Each complaint would need to be interrogated individually to determine if it was related to a licence type and collation of this information is a resource intensive task that will involve substantial resources and I am not prepared to divert valuable staff resources away from other duties to this task.
(d)
(i) As at 12 May 2016, there were 949 licences and 550 works approvals active.
(ii) 671 sites.
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