Overview and Background Part 2 – Environment Compliance notices Section 36 - Appeal against a compliance notice
144.Section 36 provides for appeal to a sheriff against a compliance notice. Subsection (1) sets out the grounds for a public authority which has received a compliance notice to appeal against any such notice. A public authority may appeal against a compliance notice on the following grounds: that it has not conducted itself in the manner stated in the notice; that the alleged conduct specified in the notice does not constitute a failure to comply with environmental law or, as the case may be, a failure to comply with environmental law that will likely continue or be repeated, or that the alleged failure is not causing, or has not caused, environmental harm or a risk of environmental harm.
145.Subsection (2) states that an appeal must be made with 21 days of the date of issue of the notice, or it may be made later with the sheriff’s permission. Subsection (3) provides for the sheriff to give permission under subsection (2) for an appeal to be made after the expiry of the 21-day period only if the sheriff is satisfied that the public authority has good reason for not making the appeal within the 21-day time limit. Subsection (4) states that the sheriff may cancel the compliance notice or confirm the notice, either with or without modifications. Where an appeal is made under this section, the period set under section 33(1)(d) for compliance with the notice is suspended until the appeal is finally determined or withdrawn. Onward appeals against a sheriff’s decision will follow the routes of appeal set out in Part 5 of the Court Reform (Scotland) Act 2014.