(c) Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com)
Today’s blog is written by Pip Goodwin, Senior Policy Officer, External Affairs on how we are keeping the UK Government accountable.
The RSPB and other environmental NGOs are deeply frustrated with the delay in setting legally binding environmental targets and have launched a formal complaint with DEFRA. Learn about the enforcement process and what further action we are planning to take.
On Monday night, 31 of October 2022, the UK gGovernment missed the legal deadline for setting its first batch of environment targets under the Environment Act 2021. This means wethere is still have no detail about the new targets – which must be set for biodiversity, water and air quality - and government were not prepared to commit to a new date.
The RSPB and other environmental NGOs are deeply frustrated at the delay and have launched a formal complaint with DEFRA, the department responsible for setting and meeting the targets. This is a first step – if there is no meaningful response then a further complaint could be made to the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP). The only possible silver lining to this delay is if the extra time is used to strengthen the targets proposals that were consulted on earlier this year.
Why are the Environmental targets important?
The Environment Act is landmark legislation in that it creates a framework for long term legally binding targets, including for biodiversity, air and water. It also contains a legal target to halt declines in species abundance by 2030 – the so called “Net Zero for nature”. Work on defining these targets started in early 2019, with a promising Policy Paper published by government in summer 2020 setting out their scope. This was followed by over a year of detailed development, and a public consultation that closed at the end of June - which drew over 180,000 responses. The Act contains a legal deadline for the setting of the first batch of targets – 31 October 2022 – which should be followed by another legal deadline at the end of January 2023 for the refresh of the 25YEP.
Setting these targets is essential to will guide the UK Government environmental policy over the next couple of decades and are a vital tool to halt and reverse declines in nature.
The missing of the legal deadline is a serious failure by government, not only because it delays the crystallising into law of the targets and therefore puts off action to deliver them, but because it could have knock on effects on other parts of the Act’s legal framework – notably the refresh of the 25 Year Environment Plan (YEP). The updated plan will describe the policies needed to meet these targets and define the first batch of interim targets – these will be critical to ensuring that government is on the right trajectory for meeting its long term goals.
The RSPB’s response to the missed deadline
Since DEFRA has not met its legal deadline to set the targets, Tthe RSPB has joined partner organisations in Greener UK and Wildlife and Countryside Link to submit a formal complaint to DEFRA, stating “that the Secretary of State is in breach of her legal duty to lay the draft statutory instrument(s) on targets before Parliament before the statutory deadline”. We are urging the department to lay its proposed targets before Parliament in the shortest possible timeframe and have asked for details of this new timeframe. To date we have only been told that they will continue to work at pace and will lay the draft targets “as soon as practicable”. We are required to use DEFRA’s internal process as a first step before taking further action in the form of a legal complaint to the OEP – England’s green watchdog - should DEFRA not give us a satisfactory response.
How the OEP could respond
Environmental NGOs have notified the OEP of our DEFRA complaint, and it may also decide to act of its own volition. There has already been a robust OEP response to the government’s missed deadline, pointing out that this is starting to form a pattern of behaviour and publishing a list of other legal targets that have been missed in an annex to the letter. The OEP can take enforcement action against public bodies where serious breaches of environmental law are suspected and, in this case, has indicated that use of its formal enforcement powers are being kept under active review, with a suggestion that the end of the year would be the latest acceptable date for laying the targets before Parliament.
Is there a silver lining to all this?
It has been encouraging to see a robust debate in the House of Lords in response to a private notice question from Lord Randall. Peers from all sides were pressing the minister, Lord Benyon, for an explanation of the delay. It was good to hear Lord Randall also calling for the targets to be laid before Parliament in advance of December’s Convention on Biodiversity Conference – a strong set of targets in domestic law will strengthen the UK Government’s hand in the international negotiations for a new Global Biodiversity Framework.
As a sector we are also calling for the additional time to be used to plug some of the weaknesses in the targets that were proposed in the consultation. Foremost amongst these is the absence of a target for the condition of protected sites on land, and the flawed long term species abundance target. The latter calls for an increase of 10% over an uncertain future baseline of 2030 – at the current rate of species declines this means that the target for 2042 could actually be set below the already depleted current levels. Our ask is for a 20% increase in species abundance over a 2022 baseline – only this would see nature on track for recovery by mid-century.
As stated above, this is all deeply frustrating – not least as the missed deadline is a failure of process and we simply cannot afford to waste time in the legal niceties around deadlines. Against a background of severe and ongoing declines in nature, government’s priority must be to get on with the actions needed to reverse declines – to set out a convincing and clear plan early in 2023 – and crack on with putting it to work. It could start with looking closely at the RSPB’s recent report “A World Richer in Nature” which sets out the key actions needed to ensure that we see a nature positive decade of action.
At Prime Ministers’ Questions last week Rishi Sunak spoke of the landmark Environment Act passed by the Government in 2021 and stated that the Government has ‘a clear plan to deliver’ on the provisions of the Act. We will be closely monitoring progress on this “clear plan” – not least to see how it translates into the 25 YEP refresh in January. In the meantime, we urgently need to see the publication of an ambitious set of targets before the CBD CoP in December.
The UK Government can be in no doubt that the RSPB and other environmental NGOs will continue to hold DEFRA to account for any further evidence of inaction.