The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has said it was considering enforcement action against Defra after it failed to meet the deadline to set statutory targets as part of the Environment Act. Utility Week reported that newly appointed secretary of state, Therese Coffey, said the department had struggled to analyse the 180,000 responses to a consultation on what the targets should include. The ENDSreport also said that the use of enforcement powers against DEFRA was ‘under active review’.

It was widely reported that Rishi Sunak’s government has delayed legally binding targets aimed at curbing pollution and restoring nature. The government said its 31 October deadline for setting targets to improve water, air and wildlife would be missed.

OEP Chair Dame Glenys Stacey said:

“The Secretary of State has made clear that the statutory deadline set by Parliament for environmental targets will not be met. We appreciate the particular political difficulties of recent months, but nevertheless the failure to meet the deadline is deeply regrettable.

An ambitious and comprehensive set of targets is needed urgently to tackle serious and concerning trends of environmental decline and to drive improvements that will benefit us all.  With government committed to halt species decline by 2030, and given other environmental pressures, there is no time to lose.

“Earlier this year we provided detailed advice to government on how best to develop the draft targets initially proposed. We welcome the Secretary of State’s commitment to work at pace, and trust our advice will be helpful.

We will continue to monitor progress and will hold government to account to ensure targets are in place quickly now.”

Formal complaint to Defra by NGOs

In the meantime, a formal complaint has been lodged with Defra by a group of environmental NGOs.

A letter signed by members of Greener UK, Wildlife and Countryside Link and the Healthy Air Coalition expressed great concern that the deadline set out in the Environment Act has been missed. The letter goes on to say, ‘This is a formal complaint to the department 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.’

The group of NGOs pointed out that this missed deadline sat with other delayed policies and programmes, including the environmental principles policy statement, the revised National Air Pollution Control Programme and the bottle deposit return scheme, suggesting “delay is at risk of becoming the default culture in Defra.”