IEMA responds to Environmental Audit Committee report on Environmental Principles

Responding to the Environmental Audit Committee's ‘Recommendations on the Government's Environmental Principles Policy Statement’ today CEO Sarah Mukherjee MBE said:

We support a robust and coherent environmental principles policy statement from government to enable departments across Whitehall to consider the environment when deciding on policy.

Key to this is that there is appropriate guidance on how the statement should be used in conjunction with existing government appraisal tools for example the Green Book guidance. Likewise the statement must effectively dovetail with other policy instruments spilling out of the Environment Act like the Environmental Improvement Plans (EIPs) and the long-term environmental targets framework.

Only a joined-up approach of this nature will deliver more effective outcomes for our natural environment.