Environmental crime includes all offences either created by statute or developed under the common law which damage the surroundings we live in, including the air, water and land environment. Such crimes have not been codified or consolidated into a single piece of legislation but are derived from a series of Acts (notably the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (as amended) and the Water Resources Act 1991). The Committees report focuses on concerns about limited prosecutions and inadequate sentencing powers. Findings include criticism of the current sentencing system which is too inflexible and lack the imagination to adequately punish larger companies who continue to cause pollution and flagrantly flout the law. Other conclusions include concern that the general level of fines imposed fail to reflect the gravity of the crime nor establish a sufficient deterrent. For many types of environmental crime, compulsory remediation work would be a more appropriate sentence. The severity of sentence should reflect the level of profits made from the crime, since unless the polluter is made to pay substantially more than this, there will be no effective deterrent.