Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 6
6
We are concerned that the new Office for Environmental Protection will inherit a backlog of...
Conclusion
We are concerned that the new Office for Environmental Protection will inherit a backlog of cases, and remain to be convinced that it will be sufficiently independent. It will take some months for the Office for Environmental Protection and its responsibilities for enforcing environmental law to be established fully under the provisions of the Environment Bill. The Department says that, in the interim, a secretariat and chair designate will make initial assessments on reported breaches of environmental law by public authorities. The Office for Environmental Protection will have to play catch up in looking at these reports once established. Unlike the Climate Change Committee, the Office for Environmental Protection will report to Ministers and not to Parliament directly. We are concerned that this will affect its ability to act independently. Recommendation: The Department should write to the Committee to set out what steps it is taking to minimise the delay between the passing of the Environment Bill and the establishment of the Office for Environmental Protection. As is the case with the Climate Change Committee, the Office for Environmental Protection should have a mandate to report directly to Parliament. 8 Achieving government’s long-term environmental goals 1 Progress, power and funding
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: By April 2021 6.2 The Permanent Secretary for the department has written on the 25 March 2021, to the Committee chair explaining that the government is setting up the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) in interim form from July 2021, before Royal Assent of the Environment Bill. 6.3 The interim OEP will be led by the Chair-designate, Dame Glenys Stacey, plus other non- executive directors selected through a current public appointment process and the interim Chief Executive-designate. Following the Environment Bill’s Royal Assent, this group will become the Board of the OEP as an independent legal entity. 6.4 The interim OEP will assume and build upon the functions of an interim secretariat which has operated in Defra from 1 January 2021. As well as receiving complaints about compliance with environmental law and monitoring progress under the Environment Plan, as this secretariat has been, the Interim OEP will be able to: • publish an independent assessment of progress on the Environment Plan; • develop the OEP’s strategy and enforcement policy; • take decisions on operational matters like staff recruitment, accommodation and facilities; • determine approaches for how the OEP will form and operate, establishing its character, ways of working and voice. 6.5 This ensures the OEP can use its full powers as soon as they are commenced following Royal Assent. 6.6 The OEP and the CCC have similar constitutions. Both are sponsored by, but legally separate from, government departments. The OEP will report to Parliament on its functions and its findings from monitoring environmental progress and the implementation of environmental law. This means the OEP, while accountable to Ministers, will be operationally independent and provide reports to Parliament.