Part 1: Environmental Governance Chapter 2: The Office for Environmental Protection Section 36: Decision notices
This section provides for the OEP to take further enforcement action in the form of a "decision notice".
	The OEP may issue a decision notice under subsection (1) if it is satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the public authority has failed to comply with environmental law, and it considers that the failure is serious. As with an information notice, the question of seriousness will be one for the OEP to consider on the basis of its own published complaints and enforcement policy (see section 23). The "balance of probabilities" test means that the OEP must consider it more likely than not that a public authority has failed to comply with environmental law. Note that this test relates to the question of when the OEP is permitted to serve a decision notice, and does not create a requirement to issue such a notice in any particular case where the test is satisfied.
	As defined in subsection (2), decision notices are a means by which the OEP can take action against the public authority failing to comply with environmental law, by setting out the failure, its reasons for considering that the failure is serious, and the suggested steps for the public authority to take in relation to the failure. The potential actions that the OEP can request will be specific to each case. For instance, the OEP could recommend that the public authority prepare a new, or updated strategy, or undertake remedial action in the event that environmental harm has been done. Other possible steps could include asking an authority to cancel, amend or re-take a decision (for example, to designate a certain area as a protected site), or take steps to pursue a particular environmental quality standard or other environmental outcome as required. Subsection (2) does not constrain the types of steps that the OEP can specify, and provides expressly that they may include steps designed to remedy, mitigate or prevent reoccurrence of the failure.
	The public authority that receives a decision notice is not under a legal duty to carry out the steps detailed in the notice. Under subsection (3), the public authority is required to respond to a decision notice either two months after the notice was given, or by a date specified in the notice, whichever is later. The written response from the public authority must state whether the public authority agrees that there has been a failure to comply with the law, and whether the steps set out in the notice will be followed, as specified in subsection (4). This subsection also requires the public authority to specify any other alternative steps that will be taken in relation to the alleged failure described in the notice. This reflects the possibility that the public authority might accept that it had failed to comply with environmental law, but might wish to propose alternative or additional steps to remedy, mitigate or prevent reoccurrence of the failure, compared to those specified in the OEP’s decision notice.
	Subsection (5) provides that the OEP may withdraw a decision notice after it has been issued (paragraph (b)), and also requires that the OEP must have previously issued at least one information notice relating to the alleged failure of the public authority to comply with environmental law before a decision notice is issued (paragraph (a)). The OEP may withdraw a decision notice if, for example, it has served such a notice where it considers there has been a failure to comply with the law but later considers that there had been no such failure. In this case, it would be desirable to withdraw the notice rather than require a public authority to respond to a notice that the OEP no longer considers is relevant or necessary.