The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has raised concerns that the environment could be put at risk due to the short timescales proposed by government to review retained European Union laws, many of which pertain to protecting the natural world.
The OEP submitted evidence to the House of Commons’ Retained EU Law (REUL) bill committee, urging that the changes are “managed well” when proposing updates to existing laws.
EU laws form the basis of the majority of water legislation, including the urban wastewater directive and environmental protections.
The REUL bill would signal the end of these legislations following the UK’s departure from the European Union. The OEP warned that the review could “introduce a rushed approach to law-making that puts the protection and improvement of the environment at risk.”
The UK’s departure from the EU has been hailed by some as an opportunity to re-examine laws and regulations, with Environment Agency chief executive James Bevan saying Brexit was “a massive opportunity” to rethink regulation. He suggested retaining the most effective parts of environmental protection laws and re-writing others to specifically suit the UK.
Chair of the OEP, Glenys Stacey said: “If done well, this review could make environmental law better. But done badly, or rushed unduly, it could compound environmental problems and create new uncertainties and burdens.
“Rushed law-making is not conducive to addressing environmental problems that are difficult, complex, inter-connected and long-term. It runs the risk of undermining the UK government’s own environmental ambitions and international standing,” she said.
Under the bill, hundreds of environmental laws could be revoked or amended that would be important to address current challenges around water quality, nature depletion and others.
“Worryingly,” Stacey said, “the bill does not offer any safety net. There is no requirement to maintain existing levels of environmental protection.”
The OEP called for an extension beyond 2023 to examine revocation of retained EU laws. Furthermore it said the bill should include an environmental non-regression safeguard to ensure standards or ambition are not lowered.
The regulatory group said government should compile a comprehensive list of all environmental laws subject to REUL’s scope and provide evidence for any proposed changes or revocations.