Business of the House (Environment Bill: Carry-over)

Rebecca Pow Excerpts

Tuesday 26th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Rebecca Pow)]

I beg to move,

That—

(a) if, at the conclusion of this Session of Parliament, proceedings on the Environment Bill have not been completed, they shall be resumed in the next Session;

(b) paragraphs (9) to (14) of Standing Order 80A shall have effect in relation to the Bill as if it had been ordered to be carried over to the next Session of Parliament in pursuance of a carry-over motion under paragraph (1) of that Standing Order, except that paragraph (13) shall have effect as if the period on the expiry of which proceedings on the Bill shall lapse is two years from the date of its first reading in this House.

As Members on all sides of the House will be aware, the covid pandemic has upended the familiar procedures we are all used to following in this place, and indeed across almost every aspect of our life. The necessary changes we have had to make to our procedures in order to keep Members, the public, and of course staff safe have put extraordinary pressure on the parliamentary timetable, and I want to reassure all Members that the Government remain committed to getting this Environment Bill on to the statute book.

We committed in our manifesto to create the most ambitious environmental programme of any country on Earth, and this Bill forms the cornerstone of that commitment. Across all areas of the environment, the Bill will drive improvement, with cleaner air, greater biodiversity, a greater emphasis on nature, less waste, healthier rivers, more recycling, restoration of our precious habitats, less deforestation, and a ban on exporting polluting plastic waste to developing countries—all underpinned by new, legally binding targets and watched over by our tough new Office for Environmental Protection. Work on delivering these improvements will not pause: indeed, much is underway already, and will speed up apace. We are launching consultations, collating evidence, and driving forward implementation to restore and improve our environment as soon as we can. We have appointed the chair of the Office for Environmental Protection, Dame Glenys Stacey; we have published a policy paper on targets; and we will shortly be publishing our environmental policy statement.

I, like many other Members, want to see this Bill made law without delay. I hope that I have been able to provide some reassurance that both I and my Department, and indeed the whole Government, are working to implement these measures without delay. Even if the parliamentary passage of the Bill will take place in this session and the next, this carry-over motion is absolutely essential to ensuring this flagship piece of legislation does not fall at the end of this session. The Environment Bill will resume early in the second session—I make that absolutely clear—with Royal Assent by autumn. One could say that by spreading it over two days, with a space in between, we will get two bites at this really important environmental cherry.

Question put and agreed to.

Environment Bill (Programme) (No. 5)

Ordered,

That the Order of 26 February 2020 (Environment Bill: Programme) as varied by the Orders of 4 May 2020 (Environment Bill: Programme (No. 2)), 22 June 2020 (Environment Bill: Programme (No. 3)) and 28 September 2020 (Environment Bill: Programme (No. 4)), be further varied as follows:

(1) Paragraphs (4) and (5) of the Order shall be omitted.

(2) Proceedings on Consideration and up to and including Third Reading shall be taken in two days in accordance with the following provisions of this Order.

(3) Proceedings on Consideration—

(a) shall be taken on each of those days in the order shown in the first column of the following Table, and

(b) shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion at the times specified in the second column of the Table.