Campaigners have condemned the Prime Minister’s speech to the CBI promising to crack down on "time-wasting" caused by the "massive growth industry" in legal challenges to government policy. The Coalition for Access to Justice for the Environment (CAJE) awaits more detail.

A further announcement is expected from Secretary of State Chris Grayling, but the organisation say such moves destabilise democracy and undercut the UK’s obligations on public participation and access to environmental justice under EU and International environmental law.

Sellafield Ltd is facing prosecution over a waste disposal incident, the Environment Agency and Office for Nuclear Regulation confirmed today.

The regulators said the joint action follows “an extensive investigation which has led to allegations that the company sent and disposed of four bags of low-level radioactive waste from its site in West Cumbria, to Lillyhall landfill site, in nearby Workington, Cumbria, in 2010”.

After years of alleged environmental mismanagement at Odfjell's Rotterdam tank storage terminal, an inspection by the DCMR Environmental Protection Agency – the regional environmental agency in Rijnmond – led to the temporary closure of the entire facility. Odfjell had a history of breaching environmental protocols and permit conditions long before this recent shutdown. Over the last 10 years, some 60 violations of varying degrees of seriousness have been identified by the authorities. The agency last had Odfjell in its sights in August 2011, when it failed to report a leak of two tons of butane.

The agency, which is an autonomous legal entity that works for and is governed by 15 local municipal authorities and the South Holland province, has itself also been under increased scrutiny after a fire at chemical storage company Container Masters International in Rotterdam in 1996 (for further details please see "Appellate court finds agencies liable for failure of supervision"). Not only were toxic chemicals that had been improperly stored released into the air, but a neighbouring transit warehouse was also destroyed by the fire. In 2011 the Civil High Court of The Hague held the agency liable for the damage caused to the neighbouring property, due to the fact that it had failed to supervise Container Masters International adequately. It is rare for an enforcement authority to be held liable as a result of failed supervision.

A plant nursery forced to destroy 50,000 ash trees is suing the government for failing to block imports of the tree sooner. Simon Ellis, managing director of Crowders Nurseries in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, said the Horticultural Trades Association wrote to ministers in 2009 warning of a new virulent strain of the ash dieback disease and calling on it to close UK borders.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has reported 52 confirmed cases of the disease.