Just over a year ago, in October 2019, the government introduced
the Environment Bill. Its purpose is to enhance and protect our
natural environment by making sure that we leave the environment in
a better state than in which we inherited it and, crucially, that
future governments continue to do the same.
The bill requires the Secretary of State to set long term
environmental targets, defined as 15 years and over, for at least
one matter within the four key priority areas of air quality,
water, biodiversity and resource efficiency and waste
reduction.
A key provision of the bill is to establish the Office for
Environmental Protection (OEP), a powerful new independent
regulator which is tasked with holding the government to account.
It will scrutinise all government policy and ensure that the
environment is at the very core of all decision making. It will
have significant power, including the ability to run its own
independent investigations and enforce
