Policy paper

Government response to the Office for Environmental Protection report on post-implementation reviews of environmental laws

Published 27 June 2023

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-oep-report-on-post-implementation-reviews-of-environmental-laws/government-response-to-the-office-for-environmental-protection-report-on-post-implementation-reviews-of-environmental-laws

Presented to Parliament pursuant to the Environment Act 2021

Context

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) laid before Parliament a report on the Post-implementation Review of Environmental Law under section 29 of the Environment Act 2021. This is the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs statutory response to that report pursuant to the Act.

Government’s response

As set out by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Thérèse Coffey, to Parliament on 27 March 2023, Defra is committed to delivering high standards for environmental protection and meeting our legal duties in respect of post-implementation reviews (PIRs). After prioritising resources to deliver a successful EU exit and supporting the country’s response during the pandemic, we recognise that we have not yet met all our obligations to deliver PIRs. We are working to continually improve our mechanisms for capturing, tracking and delivering these statutory requirements. In addition, government is taking the opportunity to review the scope for better regulation outside the European Union, through more tailored regulations and cutting unnecessary red tape.

Recognising the statutory nature of PIRs and how important they are for reassessing the impacts of relevant regulatory measures on business, Defra is already taking steps to clear the backlog of overdue PIRs it is responsible for by the end of 2024, and to meet future review requirements.

This includes:

  • assessing all our overdue PIRs against prioritisation criteria, including considering links to retained EU law (REUL) and future reform work
  • producing action plans for all overdue PIRs with clear phased timescales for completion and individual deadlines, to be completed by the end of 2024
  • a bespoke digital application for internal tracking and reporting on PIRs
  • external legal support to provide assurance that we have captured all outstanding requirements
  • new governance processes including regular monitoring and reporting to the

Permanent Secretary and Defra’s Executive Committee on progress Defra’s Permanent Secretary has also been in correspondence with the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Commons Select Committee regarding the department’s overdue PIRs. This correspondence has included lists of PIRs with agreed deadlines for completion, as per the above steps, and a commitment to biannually update the Committee with progress.

As noted earlier in this response, Defra will continue to provide updates on progress against deadlines and clearing the backlog of PIRs as agreed with the EFRA Commons Select Committee.

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