It outlines our purpose, guiding principles and approach to improving the environment and human health outcomes. It sets out what you can expect from us, why we regulate, how we do it and who we work with.
The Regulatory Strategy (PDF 8MB) reflects new and existing challenges in environmental regulation and our broader role beyond environmental compliance. We want to ensure not only that we hold polluters to account but that we work with business, communities and government and influence behaviours to enable positive outcomes for the environment and human health.
Our regulatory approach
Our regulatory approach has eight elements – influence, listen, educate, enable, act, enforce, monitor, and require. In everything we do we aim to assess the greatest risks and address the biggest impacts to human health and the environment. We focus our activities to achieve the best outcomes.
Regulatory Policy
The EPA has finalised our new Regulatory Policy (PDF 5.8MB).
The Regulatory Policy sits under the Regulatory Strategy –it replaces the EPA’s prior Compliance Policy.
The Regulatory Policy describes many of the tools we use and regulatory actions we may take under each of the eight elements of our regulatory approach.
The policy explains what informs our decisions and what we consider when the EPA makes regulatory decisions.
In terms of how we make the decisions, the Regulatory Policy includes what factors we consider when deciding on a response to a non-compliance by an individual or individual business or in response to an environmental or human health issue.
Additional information on tools and actions under each element of our regulatory approach will also be developed and made available on our website in 2022.
