Environment Bill (Eleventh sitting)

Daniel Zeichner Excerpts

Thursday 5th November 2020 Public Bill Committees

[Leo Docherty]

The Bill provides the OEP with statutory functions that enable it to provide advice on any proposed changes to environmental law. It can also provide advice, at the request of a Minister, on any other matter relating to the natural environment. The clause provides the Minister with a discretionary power to lay the OEP’s advice and any response they wish to make to it before Parliament. In this situation, it is entirely appropriate to provide the Minister with that flexibility.

The provision of advice from the OEP to Government may not simply be a single event but could be an iterative process. Given that the OEP will become an expert body, Ministers may regularly ask it for advice, which may include specific technical questions on relatively minor matters. Requiring the OEP’s advice to always be laid before Parliament may impede the interaction between the OEP and Government. The Government should be able to seek advice from and respond to their public bodies with ease. This approach is not new; the advice provided by the Committee on Climate Change under sections 33 to 35 of the Climate Change Act 2008 is not laid before Parliament. Flexible, case-by-case provision is needed here, and it would be inappropriate to convert this power into an inflexible duty. The Committee should be assured that, if the OEP’s advice is significant enough for Parliament to debate it, the Minister will lay it before Parliament so that it can be discussed.

[Daniel Zeichner (Cambridge) (Lab)]

Some of us Opposition Members do not have experience of government, so we have to trust the way others work, but I find this slightly extraordinary. It seems to me that if this is in legislation, it is not a question of just picking up the phone and having a casual chat with people; it is about seeking advice. If the Minister is seeking advice, why on earth should that not be available to Parliament? Parliament ought to be able to see what the Government are doing. That does not preclude the odd informal phone conversation.

[Leo Docherty]

I take the hon. Gentleman’s point, but the key word here is “flexibility”. It is important that flexibility be retained in the relationship so that the Government can interact with the OEP and other public bodies with ease. That is the important principle at stake here.

The OEP is required to act transparently, and any advice that it provides, either on its own initiative or at the request of a Minister, must be published. Parliamentarians will be able to use the OEP’s published advice to question the Government on action they have taken in response to the OEP’s advice. I hope that has eased some of the concerns of the hon. Member for Southampton, Test, and I courteously ask him to withdraw the amendment.