Ms Laura Burke:

We have a national environmental complaints line, which is for members of the public to make complaints regarding issues in their area. That is managed by the local authorities. With regard to our function, if we were not satisfied with the performance of a local authority in a particular instance, we would issue directions against it which are legally binding. That has happened, for example, in the context of drinking water. We also have a role in licensing facilities that are operated by local authorities, for example, landfills. If we were not satisfied regarding a landfill operation, we could take a prosecution against it and we have done that in a number of instances.