ADMINISTRATIVE REORGANIZATION AND POLICY CHANGE: THE CASE OF HER MAJESTY'S INSPECTORATE OF POLLUTION
| Date | 01 September 1989 |
| Published date | 01 September 1989 |
| Author | ALBERT WEALE,TIMOTHY O'RIORDAN |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1989.tb00728.x |
ADMINISTRATIVE REORGANIZATION
AND
POLICY CHANGE: THE CASE
OF
HER
MAJESTY'S
INSPECTORATE
OF
POLLUTION
TIMOTHY ORIORDAN AND ALBERT WEALE
Environmental protection nowadays
is
a major issue of policy and administration. It is
well recognized that an effective approach to pollution control requires it to
be
integrated,
but
UK
governments have
been
slow to respond to
this
need. The creation of a new unified
pollution inspectorate
in
England and
Wales
must
be
set
in
the context
of
a general transition
in British pollution control ractice, where the incorporation of more formal procedures
is
takmg
place within a tra&on of emitter self-policing, client-regulator mutual respect,
and regulatory adaptability.
This
article
examines
the circumstances that led to the forma-
tion
of the new pollution inspectorate and considers the challenges that it faces.
BACKGROUND
Environmental protection is an established issue
in
contemporary politics and public
administration. A determined
US
President, with considerable constitutional powers
and persuasive personal qualities, could not roll back the environmental wave that
has engulfed the American and other western democracies in recent years
(see
Hays
and Hays 1987, especially chapters 13-16).
In
the
UK
a Prime Minister who, at
least until her speech to the Royal Society in September 1988, was reputably
lukewarm over matters environmental has to deal with a European Community
where environmental issues are being translated into action-forcing directives that
have steadily altered the character of British environmental policy (see Ha& 1987
for a comprehensive survey).
The reason for this prominence is not difficult to find. Environmental protection
goes
to the heart of the relationship between the state and the economy. The
smoking chimney was chosen
by
Pigou (1920, p. 184)
to
illustrate how social and
private costs might diverge, when externalities were created. Even economic liberals
Timothy
O'Riordan
and Albert Weale are respeaively Professors
of
hvironmental
sdences
and Politics
at the University
of
East
Angha,
Norwich.
They
are grateful
to
Sonia Ebehmer-christiansen, Andrew
Dunsire and
John
Greenaway
for
their comments on an earlier version
of
this article; and to those
in the Department
of
the Environment
and
Health and Safety Executive who gave confidential interviews
and extensive comments on the article, which is part
of
a study on the development
of
integrated
pollution control funded by the
Anglc-German
Foundation
for
Industrial
Society
to whom the authors
express thanks
for
support.
Public Administration Vol.
67
Autumn 1989 (277-294)
0
1989 Royal Institute
of
Public Administration ISSN 0033-3298 $3.00
278
TIMOTHY
ORIORDAN
AND
ALBERT WEALE
like Friedman (1962, pp. 30-2) have acknowledged that a proper function of
government
is
to control the spillover
effects
of one economic activity upon another.
Yet what is commonplace in theory can become controversial in practice. Although
the control of externalities is widely
seen
as
appropriate for intervention by govern-
ment, the manner in which that control is exercised
will
be disputed. Business
will
need to be assured that opportunity costs are being calculated,
so
that excessively
expensive regulation is not imposed on its activities; environmental groups will
look to
see
whether the regulators are being captured by those whom they are
supposed to be regulating; and mechanisms of political accountability will need
to be in place
if
a balance is to
be
struck between the pressures of public opinion
and the prudent exercise of regulatory functions.
At the centre
of
these conflicting forces stand the pollution inspectorates. They
have both the day-today task of enforcing environmental regulation upon emitters
and the longer-term task of evolving standards of environmental protection. The
factors influencing the reorganization in April 1987
of
three of these inspectorates
(the Industrial
Air
Pollution Inspectorate, the Hazardous Waste Inspectorate, and
the Radiochemicals Inspectorate) and their amalgamation with the fledgling Water
Quality Inspectorate into Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution
(HMIP)
is our
main theme. From one point of view this amalgamation can be regarded as yet
one more development in the 'greening' of the Department of the Environment
(DOE)
in line with the transfer to that Department of the Central
Unit
for Pollution
Control from the Cabinet Office in October 1970, the move of the Water Pollution
Research Laboratory
from
the Department of Trade and Industry in November
1970, and the shift of the nature conservancy function from the Department
of
Education and Science in November 1973. From another point of view, we shall
argue, the establishment of
HMIP
symbolizes a broader transition at work within
UK
environmental policy.
Prominent features of
this
transition include the
shift
in emphasis from confiden-
tial flexibility towards greater openness and information, from single medium
discharge control to multi-medium waste management, from a focus on end-of-pipe
treatment towards a more comprehensive approach to good management practice,
and from paternalism to more structured accountability. We believe that all these
trends are inherent in the dynamics of pollution control politics and administra-
tion. This
is
in line with a greater sense
of
environmental responsibility within
business generally, a growing feeling that good environmental protection can
stimulate new economic investment, the general 'greening' of politics, and the
persistent interest in public health and environmental cleanliness expressed by the
electorate
(see
Ellungton and Burke 1987 and Porritt and Winner 1988, for good
reviews). Integrated pollution control is an innovation whose time has come: yet
it is of interest to analyse precisely how it has become incorporated into British
practice and what the future might hold for this fledgling approach.
By common consent the British system of pollution control has striven to be
technically effective,
and
informal
in its operation Uordan and Richardson 1982;
Vogel1986;
ORiordan and Wynne 1987). The emphasis on technical effectiveness
reflects the complex nature
of
pollution problems, which
is
perhaps their most
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