Policy paper

Draft Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill 2018

The draft Environment Bill sets out how we will maintain environmental standards and build on the 25 Year Environment Plan. We've published a July 2019 update.

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

Documents

Draft Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill 2018

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Statement of impacts

Details

The draft Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill sets out how the government will maintain environmental standards as we leave the EU. It also details how we will build on the vision of the 25 Year Environment Plan.

This includes creating an independent body - the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) – which will:

  • scrutinise environmental law and the government’s environmental improvement plan (EIP)
  • investigate complaints on environmental law
  • take enforcement action on environmental law

The broader Environment Bill will also include measures on air quality, nature recovery, waste and resource efficiency and water management.

July 2019 update

The July 2019 policy statement sets out where we are with the entire Environment Bill and the progress we’ve made since December 2018. It has been published as part of a package which includes a report on air quality and several consultation responses:

Read the summary of responses to the developing environmental principles and accountability consultation.

Updates to this page

Published 19 December 2018
Last updated 23 July 2019 + show all updates
  1. Added the July 2019 statement.

  2. First published.

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