Recommendation 6

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