Recommendation 10

Environmental regulation is complex, with more than 3,000 separate pieces of legislation and more than 150 pieces of historic regulation on farming alone.20 Each regulator has a wide and complex regulatory remit and applies a range of approaches. The Environment Agency and Natural England, along with other regulatory bodies, have responsibilities that are similar and can overlap. For example, farms need to engage with the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Food Standards Agency, the Animal & Plant Health Agency, the Rural Payments Agency and others.21 The Environment Agency and Natural England have different cultures, approaches and priorities which can affect how well joint-working efforts work in practice. Even though the regulatory aspects of the water sector are to be merged in 2026, Defra told us it did not think a more extensive merger of the Environment Agency and Natural England would have a net overall benefit. Defra told us the system of regulation for the water sector is broken, but that it has not reached this stage for other areas of regulation.22 This is one of the reasons for merging water regulators.