EUROPEAN UNION red tape, according to an expert, is impeding post-Brexit Britain’s environmental policy, as much legislation remains outdated, despite the Environment Act 2021 receiving Royal Assent at the end of last year.
Eloise Scotford, Professor of Environmental Law at University College London (UCL), argues that post-Brexit Britain is in an unusual position, with a slew of residual EU red tape that could jeopardize efforts to develop a new environmental policy independent of Brussels. She said: “The majority of EU environmental law that applied to this country pre-exit has been retained.
“In that process, there were gaps, which is the motivation for what is now the Environment Act and Continuity Act in Scotland.
“Legislation is planned in Wales, but this has been held up politically, and Northern Ireland is in a very complicated position.
“The puzzle is putting this together with what we retained from EU law under the Withdrawal Act 2018.
“In England, there’s a huge volume linked to the Environment Act, so legally it’s very tricky to read these bodies together because they’re both on the foot.
“The issue is that we are faced with two-tier regulation. And there is a risk that the uninitiated will just go to the Environment Act, look for the targets, and say that’s our environmental law post-Brexit.
“But, actually, the majority of air quality standards right now are in retained EU law, and this has stronger enforcement architecture because the legal consequences of standards being breached are harsher.”
Ms. Scotford added that, despite the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, there may be tensions between European and British environmental law as a result of lingering legislation.
This is because European legislation requires that the exceedance of air pollution targets is dealt with in “as short a time as possible” while on the other hand, the British Environment Act uses wording that is less intrusive “as soon as reasonably applicable”.
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