Review of Environmental Governance - Call for Evidence

Overview

The growing pressures on our shared environment have led the council to adopt several new measures, from declaring a Climate Emergency to our first Environmental Improvement Plan which aims to ‘collectively deliver real improvements in the quality of the environment'. From algae blooms, to recent flooding to continued concern over the loss of biodiversity, the challenges facing our environment are of huge public concern. Yet environmental targets and objectives by themselves are not sufficient. We need to have the capacity to deliver them and to rebuild public confidence in our ability to do so. 

The environmental challenges we face are complex and cannot be addressed in isolation by any one organisation. When we compare our environmental regulator to similar bodies in neighbouring jurisdictions in the rest of the UK and in Ireland, we note that it is an outlier. It is both less well resourced (smaller budget, fewer staff), and less independent from government than its counterparts. This leads to concerns about its ability to deliver for the environment in a transparent, effective and timely way. This is particularly problematic as tackling environmental challenges will require difficult, sometimes unpopular decisions – a strong, well respected and well-resourced regulator is needed to both inform and support these decisions.  

Why your views matter

This Call for Evidence is an important part of our Independent Review and we look forward to receiving your responses.