Policy update: Environment Bill

The government has announced a delay to the Environment Bill’s passage through Parliament, due to COVID-19 restrictions and a bottleneck of legislation making its way onto the statute book. It is expected that the Bill will receive significant interest in the Lords, and the pause means it will carry over into the next parliamentary session, rather than being rushed through without proper scrutiny, or risking being dropped.

IEMA continues to engage with government officials on the underlying governance mechanisms in the Bill. We anticipate that the draft Policy Statement on Environmental Principles will be published shortly and will provide opportunities for IEMA members to feed in thoughts to help shape our response.

Work is under way to develop the first set of legally binding long-term environmental targets in the areas of waste and resource efficiency, biodiversity, water and air quality. IEMA’s Circular Economy Steering Group members met with the Defra officials who are developing a new national resource productivity target, and members of the group are supporting Defra’s scenario modelling. We anticipate an autumn 2021 consultation on the suite of draft targets, and will keep members up to date and provide opportunities to feed into IEMA’s response.

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