The Environment Bill 2020 was re-introduced into the House of
Commons last week. It is an updated version of the bill published
in October 2019 that was withdrawn due to the General Election (see
here for our blog post on this). If adopted, it will be the
most substantial piece of primary legislation on the environment
since 1995.
The Bill deals with governance gaps resulting from Brexit by
establishing a new Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) to
hold Government and public authorities to account, puts the
Government's 25 year environment plan on a statutory footing,
requires Government to have regard to environmental principles in
policy making and mandates the setting of specific national targets
in certain areas such as air quality. It also contains wide powers
to make regulations by secondary legislation to implement key
reforms in waste and recycling, the requirement for developers to
demonstrate biodiversity net gain and introduces the ability to
place
