Contaminated Sites Act 2003

On receiving a disclosure statement under section 64 from a person with respect to the contamination of land, and any further information requested under that section, the committee is to give an exemption certificate in respect of all, or part, of the land in respect of which the disclosure statement was made to the person if, and to the extent that, in the opinion of the committee —

the land is contaminated;

the contamination was not caused, or contributed to, by an action of the person;

the person did not fail to prevent the contamination of the land, as far as it was reasonably within the person’s control to prevent that contamination; and

the land in respect of which the statement was made which was owned by the person was contaminated at the time the person became an owner of the land and, at that time, the person did not know, or suspect, and could not reasonably have known or suspected, that the land was contaminated.

An exemption certificate is to specify the extent to which a person who made a disclosure statement is not responsible for remediation under section 27(2) or (2a) of the land in respect of which the statement was made.

A person who would otherwise be responsible for remediation of a site under section 27(2) or (2a), is not responsible under those provisions for remediation of the site to the extent provided by an exemption certificate held by that person.

Other than as set out in subsection (3), a person’s responsibility for remediation of a site under this Act is not affected by an exemption certificate.

An exemption certificate in respect of land may be transferred by the holder of the certificate to another person who, at any time after the certificate has been given, has become an owner of the land, or part of the land, if so decided by the committee, and to the extent as is decided by the committee after taking into account —

the relevant circumstances; and

any matters prescribed for the purposes of this section.