Decision ID: 000971

In February 1999 the 1971 Fund Executive Committee, in the light of the guilty plea by the Milford Haven Port Authority to a charge under the Water Resources Act 1991 of causing or permitting polluting matter (namely oil and bunkers) to enter controlled waters, which had resulted in a sentence to pay a fine of £4 million, instructed the Director to pursue, as a matter of some urgency, consideration of whether the 1971 Fund should take recourse action against third parties to recover the amounts paid by it in compensation. The Committee expressed the view that the decision whether to take recourse action should be taken on legal grounds on the basis of the policy laid down by the Fund’s governing bodies, and that the interests of contributors to the Fund should also be taken into account when taking the decision.