Environment bill committee launches call for evidence

The environment bill committee will “scrutinise the bill line by line” and will conclude by 5 May 2020, and report to parliament soon after.

A public bill committee is  set up by the House of Commons to examine the details of a particular bill. All bills, other than money bills, are automatically sent to a bill committee after passing second reading.

The composition must match the size of the parties in the house, and was confirmed in a meeting last night.

Sir Roger Gale (Con) and Sir George Howarth (Lab) have been named as chairs.

Meanwhile, 10 of the 17 members are from the Conservative Party; they are: Rebecca Pow, Cherilyn Mackrory Bim Afolami, Caroline Ansell, Saqib Bhatti, Leo Docherty, Ruth Edwards, Robbie Moore, Richard Graham and Kate Griffiths.

The two SNP members are Chris Law and Deidre Brock, while Kerry McCarthy, Jessica Morden, Abena Oppong-Asare, Alex Sobel and Dr Alan Whitehead are from the Labour Party.

Evidence

The committee will meet for the first time on Tuesday, 10 March but evidence can be submitted up until the end of the committee stage on 5 May.

However, when the committee concludes its consideration of the bill it is no longer able to receive written evidence and it can conclude earlier than the expected deadline.

A statement from parliament said: “Your submission could most usefully suggest amendments to the bill, with supporting explanation; and support or oppose amendments tabled to the bill by members of parliament, with supporting explanation.

History

The environment bill 2019-20 was announced in the Queen’s Speech in December 2019 and passed its second reading in the house last month.

This bill is the re-introduction of the environment bill 2019 from the previous parliamentary session. The previous bill passed second reading unopposed, but fell at dissolution for the general election 2019.

The bill sits alongside the government’s longer-term objective for “this, to be the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than that in which we inherited it” and its manifesto pledge to “protect and restore our natural environment after leaving the EU”.