MPs react to Draft Environment Bill

The Government is coming under increasing pressure over its Draft Environment (Governance and Principles) Bill after a select committee of MPs raised concerns that it downgrades environmental principles that currently guide European legislation and policy.

The Bill is designed to provide for the protection of our environment once the UK leaves the EU. Current environmental protection standards under EU law are strong, so the Bill was expected to be the flagship law from the UK Government setting out how those environmental standards will be maintained.

In a report compiled by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee - 'Pre-legislative scrutiny of the Draft Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill' - MPs raise concerns that the current wording of the Draft Bill "turns what are currently legal provisions for environmental principles into a policy statement which will be much weaker and easier to revise". As a result, Ministers will only have a requirement to "have regard to" environmental principles, which weakens the importance of those principles.

Furthermore, the report argues that the environmental principles should not just apply to Ministers in law, but should apply to all public authorities.

Aside from the concerns surrounding the apparent reduced importance placed on environmental principles, the report also raises the following concerns:

• the proposed new Office for Environmental Protection should be given additional budgetary protections in the Bill. Currently, the Committee is not convinced that the funding provisions proposed will be sufficient;
• current proposals have not convinced the Committee that the Office for Environmental Protection would be independent of Government or accountable to Parliament, something the MPs believe is "essential";
• the Draft Bill currently suggests that the Office for Environmental Protection will have the power to investigate suspected breaches of law following a complaint. However, the Committee wants the Bill re-drafted to allow the Office to proactively investigate breaches based on its own initiative;
• the Committee believes the enforcement powers of the Office for Environmental Protection should be strengthened, as it is not convinced that current proposed powers regarding enforcement notices "have sufficient legal force to compel action".

There are also concerns coming from the Environmental Audit Committee about the failure of the Draft Bill to address climate change. It currently does not identify a Government agency as having the responsibility to enforce climate change targets and objectives. In fact, under the definition of "environmental law" given in the Bill, greenhouse gas emissions are specifically excluded, with the exception of fluorinated greenhouse gases. The Committee, therefore, proposes that the Office for Environmental Protection should have powers to address climate change, being careful not to interfere with the work of the Committee on Climate Change.

The chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, Mary Creagh, said "If we want to be a world-leader in environmental protection, we need a world-leading body to protect it. The Government promised to create a new body for governance that would go beyond standards set by the European Union. The Bill, so far, falls woefully short of this vision.

"Far from creating a body which is independent, free to criticise the Government and hold it to account, this Bill would reduce action to meet environmental standards to a tick-box exercise, limit scrutiny, and pass the buck for environmental failings to local authorities.

"It’s shocking that enforcement to act on climate change has been deliberately left out of the remit of the OEP.

"The Draft Bill means that if we leave the EU we will have weaker environmental principles, less monitoring and weaker enforcement, and no threat of fines to force Government action."

It remains to be seen what the final contents of the Bill will hold, and whether the Government will respond to the growing criticism of the Bill from these Committees.