Big business is still polluting the environment despite larger fines and more prosecutions, according to a new Environment Agency report.

Naming and shaming the worst offenders, the report identifies seven large companies which have refused to reform their practices.

Forum Response: BP

A spokesman for BP told ePolitix.com: "BP aims to operate to the highest environmental standards and, while incidents are rare, we believe even one occurrence to be unacceptable and take it extremely seriously.

"We regret any incidents that do occur and we continue to work with all of the relevant authorities to do whatever is necessary to remedy the situation.

"We fully support open reporting of incidents to the Environment Agency and work closely with them carrying out full investigations including an analysis of all existing operational procedures and processes."

Forum Response: Institute of Directors

James Walsh, parliamentary adviser at the IoD, told: "The IoD strongly supports higher standards of environmental protection.

"However, higher fines are not necessarily the right solution. In many cases a more imaginative approach would be more effective. Why not give courts powers to order companies to improve their training or anti-pollution procedures?

"Heavy fines can even be counter productive if they mean that companies have less money to invest in pollution control."