Environmental management—environmental legal registers

Produced in partnership with Colleen Theron of Ardea International

Practice notes

Environmental management—environmental legal registers

Produced in partnership with Colleen Theron of Ardea International

Practice notes

What is a legal register?

A legal register is the documented output from a process where an organisation aims to demonstrate compliance with applicable legislation. The quality of legal Registers varies, in terms of the compliance processes used and the:

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rationale
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scope (ie types of issues, types of Requirements, etc)
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input from those with a required level of technical expertise
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documentation to demonstrate compliance

It can also vary from being a simple list of legislation, through to more detailed spreadsheets with information about:

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the scope of the legal obligations imposed
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how the obligations apply to the organisation
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details of the relevant ‘aspects’ affected, eg cardboard, flooding, treatment plant etc
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the relevant regulator
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who within the organisation has responsibility for demonstrating compliance
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any specific Controls that have been put in place
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compliance, eg any relevant authorisations and records
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details of the revision history

Organisations develop legal registers as part of a compliance process. The drivers for adopting this process are generally either:

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a

Colleen Theron

Ardea International

Colleen is a tri-qualified solicitor and founder of Ardea International ( previously CLT envirolaw), a niche company that provides sustainability, modern slavery, business and human rights consultancy and expertise to enable companies to meet both their legal obligations and develop voluntary best practice standards. Prior to establishing CLT envirolaw, she worked as an environmental lawyer in the City of London and was recognised by The Legal 500 and Chambers as a leading environmental law practitioner.

Colleen’s indefatigable passion for combating human trafficking, particularly in business supply chains led her to found the not-for-profit organisation Finance Against Trafficking. She has spoken widely on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, modern slavery and sustainable business emphasising the growing overlap between best practice sustainability and the law. She is also a member of the steering group of the British Association for Sustainable Sport (BASIS). Previously, she was an executive member and trustee of the UK Environmental Law Association for seven years. She sits on the advisory board for LexisPSL Environment. She has recently been appointed to the sustainability advisory council for Positive Luxury.

As a Lecturer in environmental law at Birkbeck University, London, she recently designed and delivered a Masters course on business and human rights and international laws as they apply to multinational corporations. She is a regular contributor to the legal and professional press and has authored numerous accredited articles and chapters in books, most recently a publication on the financial drivers for embedding sustainability in a sports organisation published by Routledge in ‘Sport Management and the Natural Environment’. Her book ‘Strategic Sustainable Procurement: law and best practice‘ has been published by Greenleaf Publishing.

Dedicated to raising awareness of modern slavery, Colleen was part of the Modern Slavery Garden team which won Gold at the Chelsea Flower Show 2016 and has been nominated for an award by the Anti Slavery Awards group. She has set up an anti trafficking hub at the Towers Convent school in West Sussex.

Colleen has a LLM (with distinction) in Environmental Law from the University of Aberdeen.

Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

Registers definition

What does Registers mean?

The registers and public records that various regulatory authorities are required to maintain in respect of certain types of environmental information in order that it can be made available to the public.

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