Environmental Principles Policy Statement

Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville Excerpts

Thursday 30th June 2022 Grand Committee

[Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (LD)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts, and I agree with the vast majority of what he said.

Since the publication of the Government’s 25-year environment plan, we have become familiar with the five environmental principles. They, and the effect they would have, were debated at length during the passage of the Environment Bill. Politicians of all political persuasions and none, along with the public, set great store by these principles in the hope that they would save, if not the planet, our small but significant corner of it. I looked forward with anticipation to the policy statement that would set out the stall for the five principles.

Sadly, I was disappointed, as were many others. My noble friend Lady Parminter set out clearly, as always, her disappointment and that of the Environment and Climate Change Committee with the lack of enforceable commitments in the policy statement. On behalf of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, of which I am a member, the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts, set out its concerns.

The environmental principles will be the first piece of legislation in the form of a policy statement to come before the House and, as such, are something of a trailblazer. It is therefore vital that sufficient weight and debate are attached to how they are dealt with; a precedent is being created. This is the first such draft policy statement and of enormous significance.

The purpose of the principles is to change the way in which the whole of our legislative process is to operate and make our country into a world leader in its environmental credentials. The Government’s desire is to leave the environment in a better state than they found it. The public have emotionally signed up to trying to save the planet, thanks to the tremendous work of David Attenborough. Thousands of residents now know what happens to the creatures in our oceans and that it is our fault that they are suffering from huge microplastic pollution. Thanks to the noble Duke, the Duke of Wellington, nearly every village in the land is now aware of sewage discharges, both deliberate and accidental. There are many other incidents where information has been circulated and the voting public are now saying, “This is not right. This should not be happening. We need to clean up our act.”

The Environment Act was a landmark piece of legislation, underpinned by the five environmental principles. I will not repeat these, as they have already been laid out by my noble friend and others will obviously refer to them, but they cannot be changed without primary legislation. They should have the necessary teeth to make changes to our biodiversity, climate and carbon outputs. The draft EPP statement says the five principles should be considered when Ministers make policy and where relevant. Who will decide when a policy is relevant? The document also says:

“However, the principles are not rules and they cannot dictate policy decisions by ministers.”


Just what is the point of the principles and the hours and hours of debate we had during the passage of the Environment Act? Sometimes I despair.

Under “Proportionality” is the following paragraph, which my noble friend Lady Parminter referred to:

“Policymakers are not expected to carry out a ‘deep-dive’ assessment into all environmental effects, as these may not be known.”


This is undoubtedly true, but skating over the surface is not likely to flag up some extremely damaging impact that may lurk under the surface. The document goes on:

“Nor are policymakers required to replicate the environmental impact assessment process.”


Since the word used is “replicate”, it is fair to assume that someone somewhere is carrying out this environmental impact assessment. Can the Minister say who will have responsibility for doing this?

Under the section relating to the “polluter pays” principle and deciding just what or who is the polluter, there are many words that indicate that basic economics may decide whether the polluter pays. There is a definite watering down of this principle and an attempt to spread the cost to those affected, rather than those causing the environmental pollution and possible health implications. For a cynic like me, the whole of this section can be summed up as arguing over how many gnats can dance on the head of a pin. It is a charter for “get out of jail free”. I hope the Minister can reassure me that this is not the case.

I could go on, but others wish to speak after me and I am keen to hear what they have to say. Monitoring and tracing are vital if the environmental principles are to have any effect. Audit has to be everything. I reiterate that I remain deeply disappointed by this document. In its current form it is unlikely to deliver what the Government have claimed to be its aim: to make the UK a world leader on environmental matters.