The UK government has a legal obligation to consider the impact their policies will have on the environment from today (1 November 2023) under the Environmental Principles Policy Statement (EPPS).
The EPPS, which was laid before Parliament by the department for environment, food and rural affairs (Defra) in January 2023, sets out how policymakers should apply five principles to support environmental protection and enhancement:
- integration principle
- prevention principle
- rectification at source principle
- polluter pays principle
- precautionary principle
The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) will now scrutinise and monitor the implementation of this obligation across government and intends to report to Parliament after the summer of 2024.
OEP’s chair Dame Glenys Stacey said the new policy aims to put the environment “truly and properly at the heart of all relevant policymaking in government.
“If embedded effectively across government departments the EPPS can be a powerful tool in helping to deliver the government’s stated ambition of leaving the environment in a better state for future generations.
“It should, when applied properly, become an important element of environmental governance in England,” she added.
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The EPPS is one of the four main cornerstones of environmental governance in the Environment Act 2021, alongside the Act’s provisions on environmental targets, the Environment Improvement Plan and the OEP.
It will apply to policy decisions from today, including for policies which were already under development but not yet finalised.
Dame Glenys added: “Our work doesn’t stop at the EPPS coming into effect. Today marks the beginning of our careful scrutiny and monitoring of the EPPS’s implementation.
“This monitoring is aimed at providing us with valuable insights into how successfully the EPPS is embedded across Government, assessing its consistency and compliance with the law, and evaluating its impact on environmental protection and improvement within policymaking.
“Through our scrutiny and reporting, we will seek to highlight any issues that would benefit from rectification at an early stage, to increase the likelihood of the EPPS making a positive impact to protecting and improving the environment as quickly and effectively as possible.”
