Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the decision by the Parliament of Belgium to create an offence of ecocide; and what plans they have to introduce legislation to make ecocide an offence in the UK.

We do not currently have plans to introduce such a law in the UK, but we have strengthened regulations in England in recent months to protect the environment. These are enforced by a variety of regulators including the newly-established Office of Environmental Protection, the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Forestry Commission, the Marine Management Organisation, Ofwat, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, local authorities and Defra itself. Many of these regulators are able to seek criminal convictions to punish significant or persistent environmental offending and to create a deterrent against future non-compliance. They also have access to a broader suite of civil sanctions for many of the offences they are responsible for enforcing.