9.30am: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Pre-legislative
scrutiny of the Draft Environment (Principles and Governance)
Bill (Room 8, Palace of Westminster)
Witnesses:
- Nigel Haigh, Honoury Fellow and former Director, Institute
for European Environmental Policy (IEEP)
- Edward Lockhart-Mummery, Project Convenor, Broadway
Initiative Professor
- Colin Reid, Professor of Environmental Law, University of
Dundee
- Dr Viviane Gravey, Lecturer, Queen's University, Belfast
, committee chairman, asked if
the bill reflected the Secretary of State’s ambition to surpass
EU legislation.
Dr Viviane Gravey said if there was a Brexit deal the bill fell
short of what was expected in terms of environmental
requirements. If there was no deal the government could be
accused of complacency. She noted that the OEP would have to have
strong enforcement powers.
Replying to , Nigel Haigh said one of the
oddities of Clause 2 was there was no explanation of the list of
“high level” principles or why they had been selected. There was
no distinction between principles and objectives.
The witnesses discussed coherence issues and the importance of
making the bill fit in with other legislation and principles.
Mr Parish said the committee was concerned that this and other
environmental bills should be flexible but not give too much
leeway for interpretation by the Secretary of State. Dr Gravey
highlighted the importance of the government being accountable to
parliament.
Edward Lockhart-Mummery discussed the role of local authorities
and local development plans, but these issues were currently not
included in the bill. Nigel Haigh said mapping was linked to
collecting data which was done by the EU. There was a strong case
for the UK remaining a member of the EEA which, he said,
was “thinking about.”
Replying to about co-operation between the
devolved governments in the UK, Dr Gravey said discussions about
common frameworks were not going well. There were no institutions
in the UK that brought together all parts of the UK, but the Good
Friday Agreement showed how frameworks could work.
Colin Reid said it was extremely ambitious to think there would
be agreed unified arrangements by the time the bill got through
and he proposed a commitment to have a review within a relatively
short time, up to, say, five years, with a sunset clause. Mr
Parish agreed that would be a good idea. Nigel Haigh suggested -
as he had in his written submission - it should be a principle in
the bill that certain issues should be dealt with at a national,
as opposed to devolved, level.
asked about how the OEP
would work with the Committee on Climate Change.
