Regulator criticises Defra over failure to set environmental targets before deadline

New regulator the Office of Environmental Protection (OEP) has threatened to use its enforcement powers against the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) after it breached the law by failing to issue various targets.

Defra was required by the Environment Act 2021 to by 31 October set a number of environmental targets related to biodiversity, water quality, waste reduction, woodland cover and air quality.

Environment Secretary Therese Coffey admitted this week that this would be impossible since Defra had been overwhelmed by 180,000 consultation responses that officials must work through.

The OEP was set up to handle aspects of environmental regulation previously exercised by the European Commission, including holding public bodies to account.

OEP chair Dame Glenys Stacey told Ms Coffey the OEP would not take action yet against Defra but noted it had already missed five other legal deadlines for environmental measures related to water.

Dame Glenys wrote: “It is in this context, and the significance of the failure to comply with landmark domestic legislation, that we will keep our decisions on the use of any formal enforcement powers under active review as you progress your work now.”

She said Ms Coffey’s failure to issue the targets had been “deeply regrettable” and said they were needed urgently “to tackle serious and concerning trends of environmental decline and to drive improvements that will benefit us all”.  

The targets should be in place by the end of this calendar year “at the very latest”, Dame Glenys said.

Ms Coffey told Parliament the volume of consultation responses made it impossible to meet the 31 October deadline.

She said: “The Government remains committed to halting the decline in species by 2030 and bringing forward the wider suite of targets, which will help to clean up our air, reduce pollution, keep our water clean and reduce waste.”

Environment minister Lord Benyon told the House of Lords the 31 October deadline had been “perhaps over-ambitious”.

He said the 180,000 responses had to be worked through as “these targets affect people whose interests are not directly affected by Defra.

“They could be right across the whole gamut of what Government does and how it regulates. It is important that we get this right.”

Mark Smulian