Northern Ireland and UK departments are working together on including Northern Ireland into the draft Environment Bill, which could pull the UK further into alignment with EU environmental rules.
The draft Environment Bill was due originally to apply only to England, as environmental policy is a devolved matter in the UK. This could have led to a regulatory gap in Northern Ireland post-Brexit, as since 2017 there has been no sitting Assembly able to legislate.
A
letter from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural
Affairs (DEAR) of Northern Ireland confirmed that discussions are
undergoing to include Northern Ireland in the draft Environment Bill.
Officials from both governments are said now to be working on
co-designing the application of the provisions. The focus mainly lies on
extending the remit of the Office for Environmental Protection, as well
as of the environmental principles.
Northern
Ireland shares with Ireland cross-border protection mechanisms and site
management, which could arguably have an impact on the Bill itself. As
an example the letter notes that special attention needs to be given to
transboundary issues such as air and water pollution, and must therefore
be solved jointly with Ireland. Moreover, Mary Creagh, Chair of the
Environmental Audit Committee, considers that in the event of the
backstop coming into force, the whole of the UK would have to regard
regulatory alignment with the EU.
Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs’ letter to House of Commons
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