This is the conclusion of the Environmental Audit Committee, led by the Labour MP Mary Creagh, which has looked in detail at the government’s draft Environmental (Governance and Principles) Bill, the legal framework intended to underpin environmental laws once the UK has left the EU.
The Bill, which was set out in draft in December 2018, includes the proposals for the formation of a body called the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) (see letsrecycle.com story).
This would effectively replace the European Commission in holding the government to account over its environmental goals, which would include recycling targets and in other areas such as emissions of harmful air pollutants.
MPs on the Audit Committee have today (25 April) published findings of their review of the proposals, expressing concerns over the guiding principles for future environmental policy, the OEP’s scope and independence from government, as well as the enforcement powers it will have to hold government to account.
According to the Committee, under its current form, the OEP’s enforcement powers are ‘limited to administrative compliance rather than achieving environmental standards’, which it described as a “departure from the enforcement procedure of the European Commission.”
Enforcement
Unlike the approach of the European Commission, the Bill shifts responsibility for failing to comply with environmental law to individual public authorities, rather than the whole of government, MPs have claimed.
Environmental Audit Committee chair, 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.”
Mary Creagh
Environmental Audit Committee
“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.”
Mrs Creagh concluded: “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.”
Within its scrutiny of the draft bill, the Audit Committee has proposed amendments that would address some of the concerns raised as a result of the review.
Recommendations include giving the OEP greater power to hold government to account ‘as a whole’ for failure to meet environmental goals, “as is the case with the European Commission’s infringement procedure”.
“This would require different areas of government (central government, local government and public bodies) to work together cooperatively to address an environment problem,” the Committee notes.
Related Links
Scrutiny of the Draft Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill
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