The Environmental Audit Committee’s pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Environment (Governance and Principles) Bill identifies serious concerns with proposed legislation to protect the environment if the UK leaves the European Union. The Report describes the bill as lacking coherence, with many Government Departments exempted from their environmental responsibilities.

• Read the report conclusions and recommendations
• Read the report summary
• Read the full report 

Areas where MPs consider the Bill to be deficient:

• Environmental principles which guide European Union legislation and policy have been “severely downgraded”.
• There is no Government agency with responsibility to enforce climate change mitigation measures. MPs believe enforcement of climate change mitigation has been “purposefully excluded” from the scope of the Office of Environmental Protection (OEP).
• Lack of environmental accountability for action by Government Departments.

MPs were concerned they had only seen sections on principles and governance and were unable to assess the full implications of the Bill for the environment.

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