ENFORCEMENT OFFICER
We are changing the way we regulate the water industry, embedding a new approach that focuses our resources and interventions on uncovering non-compliance and driving better performance across the water industry. This programme has been set up to enable the Environment Agency to secure clean and plentiful water by focusing on our regulation of water companies. Our enforcement approach is transforming with a larger workforce, increased funding, new enforcement powers, and a strategy that promotes a strong regulatory and enforcement culture within the water industry.
Water companies are a vital part of the water cycle, abstracting water to meet our personal and business needs, then treating and returning it to our rivers, coasts, and groundwater. However, water companies don’t always perform at their best, which harms the environment we are working to protect and enhance. Your team’s central purpose is to carry out water company investigations and enforcement, including regulatory interventions in response to offences. We aim to identify the root causes of environmental harm and work with water companies to prevent it from occurring in the first place.
Locations
London Abbey Wood (+£2,117pa London Weighting allowance), Farnham, Wallingford, Reading, Welwyn Garden City.
Travel will be required to conduct enquiries and attend meetings. All staff will be provided with a vehicle to carry out their enforcement officer duties. Occasionally, overnight stays may be necessary, for example, to attend training courses.
About the jobs
We are recruiting new Water Industry Enforcement teams in Local Operations in the southeast of England. The exciting new roles we are looking to fill are:
Contract type: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time, options for flexible and / or part-time working will be considered, subject to business needs.
Incident reward payment: At the Environment Agency, responding to incidents is a central part of what we do. You will be required to take on an incident role to help us effectively respond to incidents, or to provide business continuity support during an incident. These incident roles may attract an additional payment, for example standby payment of £167pw. We will work with you to ensure we find an incident role that works for you and full training, and alternative working arrangements will be available to support you.
To learn more about these roles from those already in them, gain insight into the recruitment process, and have the chance to ask your questions, join us for our candidate call on Tuesday 11th March at 12pm by clicking here.
FAQ’s for answers to commonly asked questions, and candidate packs with further information including how to answer competency questions used for interviews, can be found via the individual apply now buttons.
Interview questions will be based around the capabilities required for each role:
The descriptors for each capability can be found here EA Capability Dictionary
We would love to inspire you to apply. If you have any questions, including regarding the upcoming candidate call, please get in touch with us at [email protected]
Benefits
- The Environment Agency contributes 19% of your pensionable pay to your membership of the Environment Agency Pension Fund (part of the Local Government Pension Scheme).
- A culture that embraces difference and is inclusive where you’ll feel supported and trusted to do the right thing. We’ll invest in you and allow you to grow and shape your career.
- A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance.
- Annual Leave entitlement starting at 25 days plus bank holidays.
- Access to financial, work/life balance and health and wellbeing benefits such as Tenancy deposit loan scheme, Blue Light card, Occupational health, maternity, paternity and adoption leave.
For more information about our wide range of benefits and allowances, and answers to general queries such as when they become available to new starters, please go to benefits.
We will hold a reserve list, and you may be offered other roles in other locations including temporary roles, which may be similarly aligned to this role.
Further information about the roles on offer
Team Leader
You will take the lead in establishing a new team of officers dedicated solely to enforcing water company activities within our Southeast Water Industry Enforcement Hub, working alongside a network of colleagues across national and local teams.
Your team will play a vital operational role in protecting the environment, helping to create a cleaner, safer, and healthier world for people and wildlife. Your team will respond to incidents and enforcement issues within the water industry, including those that carry significant reputational and environmental risks. This broad scope of work requires a diverse, multi-skilled team.
You will manage and motivate experienced officers as well as those new to the business, so you’ll need to have good team management, performance and work delivery skills. You’ll work with compliance, enforcement and legal teams to establish and embed new ways of working.
Your responsibilities will include ensuring the health, safety, and wellbeing of your team, supporting their professional development, and managing workflows to ensure efforts are focused on areas that deliver the greatest environmental benefits.
The role will be primarily office-based, with occasional site visits.
Senior Enforcement Officer
Senior Enforcement Officers take the lead on the governance and assurance of investigations and enforcement. As the Senior Enforcement Officer in our new Southeast Water Industry Enforcement Hub, you will oversee water industry compliance and enforcement cases across your team.
You will ensure that managers have a clear and comprehensive understanding of enforcement activity, allowing resources to be used effectively. You will play a key role in embedding new processes, setting strategic direction, providing technical advice, using data systems to monitor trends, and reporting on performance.
You will work closely with and support team leaders and managers, helping to inform, inspire, and motivate them to deliver effective, outcome-focused enforcement and regulation. You will also contribute to the development of the wider enforcement community by supporting, training, and mentoring those delivering water industry enforcement across the organisation. Relationship-building and delivering high-quality customer service will be key to establishing the new team and embedding new ways of working. The role will be primarily office-based, with occasional travel to support investigations and enforcement across the hub.
Senior Environmental Crime Officer
Senior Environmental Crime Officers take the lead on serious and complex investigations, as well as the enforcement of cases. As a Senior Environmental Crime Officer in our new Southeast Water Industry Enforcement Team, you will lead and support colleagues in constructing case files and conducting complex investigations into non-compliance within the water industry.
You will be responsible for coordinating all aspects of investigations. A strong knowledge of the water industry, sound decision-making skills, and the ability to apply business processes effectively will be essential to maximising resources efficiently.
Using your knowledge and experience, you will mentor and develop Environmental Crime Officers within the team, leading by example to drive investigations forward. You will understand how to enhance team performance by embracing challenge and continuous improvement, and you will be confident in introducing and sharing new ways of working.
Senior Environmental Crime Officers uphold governance principles by promoting intelligence-led, outcome-focused, and well-managed investigations, while providing technical leadership.
The role will be primarily office-based, with occasional travel to support investigations and enforcement across the hub.
Environmental Crime Officer
As an Environmental Crime Officer, you’ll be part of one of our new water industry enforcement teams in the Southeast hub, taking the lead on the enforcement of environmental offences to address serious and complex performance issues in the water industry. You will carry out investigations and take enforcement actions (including gathering and critically evaluating evidence), producing comprehensive, high-quality case files to enable the Environment Agency to take appropriate action on poorly performing sites.
Your work will be guided by your Team Leader and Senior Environmental Crime Officer, and you’ll collaborate closely with colleagues from a variety of place-based local teams.
You will be responsible for producing case files, so you will need to be methodical, have excellent attention to detail, and be confident in both verbal and written communication.
The role will be primarily office-based, with occasional travel to support investigations and enforcement across the hub.
Testimonial
Kirsty – Team Leader
When I joined the Environment Agency (EA) I joined as an Environment Officer tackling the causes of pollution and waste crime. Now I’m a Team Leader I feel like I’m delivering so much more for the environment by leading colleagues in my team.
The great thing about being a Team Leader in the EA is that you don’t need to have an environmental background to have a great positive impact on the environment, but you do need a drive and passion to support and develop the environmental experts in our teams to thrive. Although my academic background was in conservation, I have led Fisheries Biodiversity & Geomorphology Team, Customers & Engagement Team and an Agricultural Regulation Team and each one has developed me as a Team Leader and challenged me in new ways. Each team has provided a huge sense of satisfaction and the knowledge that we as a team are a different part of the wider EA doing its part to protect the environment for people and wildlife. The common theme throughout all my team leader roles is ensuring that my team’s health, safety and wellbeing are paramount.
Ask any member of the EA what the best thing about working for the organisation is and everyone will say – the people you work with. As a Team Leader you get to recruit and support people to develop in their careers and their personal skills. Whilst also being supported in your development by the host of training courses on offer to Team Leaders both new and existing. As Team Leader, you also get the opportunity to get out with your team and see the real difference they make and those that we regulate. This is useful in helping you to understand what support people need in their role may but also getting out in the environment we are protecting.
Shannon – Team Leader
I have been an Environmental Crime Team Leader for around 16 months now and can honestly say that it’s the best decision I have made in my career so far. The role itself is incredibly varied, which I love, and I am exposed to so many new, exciting situations on a day-to-day basis. I am surrounded by a team of dedicated, incredibly hard-working individuals who deliver excellent work to a high standard.
My team and I work closely with Team Leaders and Officers within Environment Management in the EA to help improve enforcement capabilities across the board, supporting other teams with their investigations wherever we can. We lead our own criminal investigations into illegal waste activities and work closely with partner organisations to jointly prevent and disrupt illegal waste crime.
I have found the Environment Agency itself to be an incredibly welcoming, inclusive and enjoyable place to work. Everyone is passionate about protecting and enhancing the environment. I intend to spend the rest of my career here!
Ben – SENFO
The SENFO role is challenging, extremely varied, technical and influential. I describe the role to people as ‘making sure we have the right people, in the right places, doing the right thing’. Working alongside, supporting and informing area leadership is the cornerstone to the role, which to date has been for all sectors we regulate. So, it’s now an exciting time for water industry regulation to have the opportunity of a SENFO specifically focussed on this regime.
You are constantly learning, whether it is new legislation or implementing new processes from our national teams. The networking, relationship building and 1-1 support of frontline officers is very rewarding. I get to share my experience, but frequently learn from others diverse range of backgrounds, motivations or insights. I see the benefits of my work in a range of ways, whether it’s a successful prosecution, protecting the environment through better regulation, seeing new staff develop or shaping new ways of working to deliver outcome focussed enforcement and regulation.
I need to be flexible; days are varied and planned events can often change to respond to an urgent query or significant incident. I work closely with water industry Environment Officers (EOs) to provide technical advice, develop them and give them the tools they need to become fully competent water industry regulators. I also work with the water company account managers, Senior Environment Officers and the National Environmental Crime Unit, ensuring we have the right data and intelligence to inform our regulation and enforcement priorities.
I attend national groups with other senior enforcement officers to peer review, ensure consistency and share best practice. The role carries a lot of responsibility which I thrive on. It is not without its pressures and can require tough decisions or advice to be given. Central to the role is ensuring that we fulfil our obligations set out in our national Enforcement and Sanctions policy, plus follow relevant internal guidance on the governance of enforcement.
The remit of the role can be broad, so I make time to keep my boots on the ground by both mentoring and training EOs at permitted site inspections, supporting interviews of witnesses or suspects, plus attending high profile incidents. This is something I enjoy and helps the area deliver more.
I’m really proud of what we achieve, especially how we frequently work across teams to succeed and overcome any obstacles in our way.