The CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link, Dr Richard Benwell (until recently Special Adviser to Defra Secretary of State Michael Gove, and currently Liberal Democrat candidate for Wantage), has warned that the Environment Bill contains discretionary powers for the Secretary of State to vary, water down or even remove long established chemical standards for controlled waters set by the Water Framework Directive.
Richard Benwell’s article is here –
https://www.wcl.org.uk/brexit-deregulatory-power-grab-tucked-into-environment-bill.asp
This is consistent with a major move in the Environment Bill, on which we will be reporting in future posts, away from mandatory EU standards for environmental media such as water and air quality, towards discretionary targets selected, and capable of being varied, by the Secretary of State.
Under the Environment Bill as currently drafted, the Secretary of State would get to choose which targets to implement in law. The Secretary of State would set the Policy applying Environmental Principles (which are still, as drafted, subject to arbitrary and unjustified exceptions for the armed forces, and from any application to taxation or spending). The Secretary of State would control the appointment, and funding, of the Office for Environmental Protection. And if standards such as chemical standards for water proved hard to meet, the Secretary of State could lower or remove the standards.
This is not, yet, the framework which the House of Commons Committees had in mind for this important legislation -
EAC Committee report 25 April 2019
‘MPs call for urgent action to plug gaps in environmental protection’
EFRA Committee report 29 April 2019
‘New environmental watchdog needs greater independence and sharper teeth’
For further information, please contact William Wilson, Barrister at info@wyesideconsulting.com, tel, +44(0)1225-730-407