IEMA's Chief Policy Advisor, Martin Baxter responds to Defra Secretary of State Michael Gove speech on the forthcoming Environment Act - July 2019

Michael Gove, Defra Secretary of State, set out his latest thinking on the forthcoming Environment Act on Tuesday 16th July. The key aspects on the governance framework in the Act speak directly to the assurances that IEMA has been advocating as part of the Broadway Initiative.

Michael Gove, Defra Secretary of State, set out his latest thinking on the forthcoming Environment Act on Tuesday 16th July. The key aspects on the governance framework in the Act speak directly to the assurances that IEMA has been advocating as part of the Broadway Initiative, extracts from the speech (read the full speech here ) as follows:

1) the Bill will ensure that, for the first time, we in the UK take a coordinated, long-term, system-wide approach to the environment. set the world first legally-binding commitment to comprehensive environmental improvement in the areas where we as a country can make a decisive difference - air quality, water management, waste reduction and wildlife revival

2) the Bill must create a robust, legally sound, framework for a comprehensive and integrated set of environmental targets which taken together can end the curveon environmental decline. And to ensure that the targets are informed by the latest science and evidence, we must make arrangements for independent, authoritative advice on the level at which they should be set ensure all our targets are robust, underpinned by the best available evidence from science, that they are developed holistically and Government is then to be held to account for meeting them.

3) Environment Bill should learn from the success of the Climate Change Act. It set a clear double duty: for the Government to achieve its climate change aspirations, and to publish a plan for doing so and that is what our Environment Bill must have.

4) of course, any law is only as strong as its enforcementhat why to underpin our commitment to change, we have to create a new Office for Environmental Responsibility to hold government to account. Compelling arguments of how to ensure its teeth are properly sharpened and united in proposing a truly independent governance structure for the OEPobvious merit that any body which is designed to hold the Government to account is independent of ministerial interference. Offering Parliament the chance to have a say in crucial appointments of senior officers it is also underpinned by upfront, multi-year budgetary guarantees.

5) in enforcing climate change law as well as wider environmental law the case is compellingonvinced that if we want a watchdog with teeth on every environmental issue it should be able to bite on climate change.

6) An Act that combines compelling and comprehensive objectives with strong enforcement powers and policies to drive innovation and investment will, I hope, enable us to demonstrate appropriate leadership

7) there will be a legal obligation for all Government policy making to pay due regard to a policy statement which will outline the core principles of environmental protection: a precautionary approach; the principle that the polluter should pay; the principle harm should be prevented or rectified at source; and environmental considerations should be integrated across government policy areas. This will constitute a baseline - against this greener backdrop, we can strengthen and reform our approach where we can make the biggest improvements.

The forthcoming Environment Act provides an opportunity to significantly improve our natural world and put sustainability at the heart of our future economic model. From an IEMA perspective, wee pleased that the approach wee been advocating to Government for a long-term policy framework that gives confidence for investment in a sustainable future is supported by the Secretary of State; it vital that this is reflected in the Bill put forward to Parliament by the incoming Government.

In addition, the speech set out a long list of topic-specific commitments in the areas of nature recovery, air quality, water, and resources and waste.

There still a way to go to ensure that i) the new Government adopts this as the core governance framework for the Bill, and ii) it survives Parliamentary skirmishes and Brexitbut this feels like an important step forward.