Schedule 3: The Office for Environmental Protection: Northern Ireland Part 1: The OEP’s Northern Ireland functions Information notices
Paragraph 9 enables the OEP to take enforcement action in the form of an "information notice".
	Under sub-paragraph (1), the OEP may issue an information notice to a relevant public authority if it has reasonable grounds for suspecting that the authority has failed to comply with relevant environmental law, and it considers that the failure is serious.
	Sub-paragraph (2) requires an information notice to describe the alleged failure to comply with relevant environmental law and detail the information that the OEP requires from the relevant public authority in relation to the alleged failure. Sub-paragraph (2) also requires the OEP to explain in its information notice why the OEP considers that the alleged failure, if it occurred, would be serious.
	Sub-paragraph (3) requires the relevant public authority to respond in writing to an information notice, providing, as far as is reasonably practicable, the information requested.
	Sub-paragraph (4) specifies that the relevant public authority must respond within two months from the date on which the notice was given, or by any later date as specified by the OEP in the notice.
	Sub-paragraph (5) sets out the information that must be included in a response to the OEP including, if applicable, the steps the relevant public authority now intends to take.
	Under sub-paragraph (6), the OEP may withdraw an information notice or issue multiple information notices in relation to the same alleged compliance failure.
	Under sub-paragraph (7), where the OEP plans to issue an information notice in relation to an alleged failure to comply with relevant environmental law relating to greenhouse gas emissions, the OEP must first notify the Committee on Climate Change and provide it with appropriate information. "Emissions of greenhouse gases" is defined in the Climate Change Act 2008.