Environment Bill

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 7th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, and I pay tribute to the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Salisbury, as he bids farewell to your Lordships’ House. I wish him a long and happy retirement.

This Environment Bill is welcome, but it has certain limitations. It will establish the new environmental governance system for England and Northern Ireland, including the new oversight body, the office for environmental protection, which I would like to see as independent. Later, I will concentrate on the Northern Ireland aspects, which must be toughened up.

This Environment Bill presents a high-powered agenda when matched against what has been happening to the environment. The dismal decline of our nature, which many noble Lords have already spoken about, has been well documented, with the UK at the bottom of the G7 league table for how much biodiversity it has left. Air quality and water, mammal and flora quality in our rivers have been impacted on. Litter is wreaking havoc on our countryside and wildlife, killing mammals and choking our seas with plastics. That is the stark nature of our environment, which needs to be preserved. The inhumanity of businesses and people, including many of us, has to be curtailed in some way if we want to protect our planet earth. The Bill needs to be improved to reflect the need to drive environmental improvement through binding interim targets and stronger delivery plans, as well as to provide that effective oversight of environmental law and progress by strengthening the independence and enforcement function of the office for environmental protection.

I am grateful to the RSPB and Greener UK for their briefing on the Northern Ireland aspects of the Bill. Specifically, Schedule 2 includes provision for environmental improvement plans and a policy statement on environmental protection in Northern Ireland. These provisions are broadly parallel to those in Part 1 that relate to England, albeit with some technical differences to reflect the different legal and policy contexts.

However, there are two key omissions that need to be corrected. First, there is no requirement to set plans for a specified time. Secondly, there is no duty or power on DAERA, the Northern Ireland department, to set and meet legally binding targets. In his wind-up, can the Minister specify why this is the case and whether work is continuing with the Northern Ireland Executive and DAERA? What are his prospects in terms of seeing that corrected?

My other questions in relation to the Environment Bill and Northern Ireland are as follows. What is the timescale for appointing the first Northern Ireland member of the board of the OEP? What resource is to be allocated to the OEP to carry out its statutory functions in Northern Ireland, including to ensure sufficient staff expertise on Northern Ireland law, policy and science? How will the OEP co-operate with the European Commission on matters of environmental law included in the Northern Ireland protocol?

Those legally binding targets are needed to help us to halt the significant loss of biodiversity in Northern Ireland. That exclusion from Schedule 2 of provisions akin to those in Clauses 1 to 6 is a fundamental omission that will hinder the protection and improvement of Northern Ireland’s environment. Therefore, I would welcome clarity from the Minister today on when the consultation on Northern Ireland’s environmental principles policy statement will be published. It must provide guidance on how the principles relate to the Northern Ireland protocol.

I look forward to answers to these pertinent questions from the Minister. I would like him to specify in his wind-up whether discussions are still ongoing with the Minister for DAERA and the Northern Ireland Executive. If so, what has been the response? Does the Minister have undertakings from the DAERA Minister and the Northern Ireland Executive that those commitments have already been made in relation to the resources to be allocated to the OEP and the OEP member for Northern Ireland?

There is no doubt that this is an important piece of environmental legislation that grants Ministers many powers, some of which are widely cast and would allow future Governments to change important laws on habitat protection, water quality and chemicals safety through regulation. Some of these do not yet have appropriate controls to ensure that they are always pursued transparently, are subject to consultation and further, rather than undermine, current levels of environmental protection.