Environment Bill back with water provisions intact

The Environment Bill returned to Parliament last Tuesday, 3 November, after its passage was disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak.

The Bill is a key vehicle for delivering the government’s 25 Year Environment Plan goals and among many other things provides for a new independent Office for Environmental Protection and legally binding targets for air quality, nature, water and resource and waste efficiency.

Ahead of the Environment Bill’s return, a number of government amendments were tabled. These include on how the OEP should exercise its enforcement powers and concern the creation of Species Conservation Strategies and Protected Site Strategies to deal with the complex challenge of balancing habitats with development. There were no government amendments to the water provisions in the bill, though in the intervening time, a legally binding target for water demand was announced as part of the water provisions.

As the Bill returned to Parliament, Water UK welcomed its ambition and provision, and suggested amendments. It said: “The Bill misses some important opportunities to further strengthen environmental outcomes. This particularly applies to its lack of ambition on empowering the public to become more water efficient, a need for clarity on the schemes that will be brought forward as part of the new producer responsibility obligations, improving proposed Drainage and Wastewater Management Plan process, and the lack of clarity surrounding the exact organisations covered by the remit of the OEP.

“These omissions are serious, and notable given the extensive treatment in the Bill of other provisions for the water sector, some of which are of much less importance to the environment than the necessary priorities highlighted above.”

Following the Bill’s completion of Committee Stage, it will be further scrutinised by the whole House of Commons at Report Stage and Third Reading, after which it will move to the House of Lords for further debate and scrutiny.