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Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

Review of Legislation Relating to Integration Within the
Environment Agency and the
Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
A Consultation Paper.

(for archive/historical purposes, this document has not been updated since the end of the relevant consulation period)

Contents

Summary

1. In April 1998 the Government announced a review of the legislation relating to the Environment Agency and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, to identify any barriers preventing the Agencies from taking an integrated approach to the environment. The review will concentrate on the practical workings of legislation on the ground. It will consider whether harmonising the relevant provisions more would improve environmental protection and enhancement and provide a simpler, more consistent and more streamlined service to industry and the public. This consultation paper is to seek your ideas for the review, by 20 October.

Background

2. The Environment Agency (EA) in England and Wales and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) regulate the major pollution risks to air, water and land. Their creation was intended to provide a more integrated approach to environmental protection and enhancement. In April 1996 the EA took over the functions of the National Rivers Authority, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution and local waste regulation authorities in England and Wales, and SEPA took over those of corresponding bodies in Scotland. The Agencies have full powers to implement the control regimes they inherited, but the environmental legislation in each of the spheres where their predecessors operated remains largely distinct. Separate regimes cover water, waste, major industrial processes and radioactive substances.

Terms of reference

3. The terms of reference of the review are:

"To investigate the possible rationalisation of the regulatory mechanisms which the Environment Agency and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency operate, and the opportunities for integrating regulatory regimes which currently operate on a similar basis but under different legislation, so as:
"to identify any significant barriers to integration within each of the Agencies, whose removal would improve the quality of regulation by producing worthwhile improvements in environmental protection and enhancement, customer service and business efficiency,

"to establish whether such barriers could be overcome by administrative means or management action by the Agencies; and

"insofar as this is not the case, to recommend legislative changes to enable them to be removed."

Scope

4. The review will focus on:

  • the mechanisms which the Agencies operate - for example, a single site licence which covered the licences needed under all regulatory regimes could be simpler for industry and the Agencies than the present arrangements; and on

  • simplification of control regimes - an example could be to rationalise the controls over radioactive and other major industrial processes, given that the two are already similar.

5. The scope of the review includes all the legislation under which the EA and SEPA operate that specifies mechanisms or control regimes with similar objectives. In practice we expect most responses to concern the rationalisation of their pollution control and environmental licensing functions.

6. The differences in legislation of each regulatory regime result in differences in the ways that each regime operates. Integration of regulatory approaches involves an examination of the differences between them, developing options for how regulation can operate, and selection of the best option. Integration cannot really be achieved unless consideration is given to the desired outcome as well as the differences in existing legislation and practices. This raises the question of what is best practice or what a 'model' pollution control regime would look like.

7. The review is not intended to consider the integration of the philosophical approaches underlying the different regulatory regimes. This raises more fundamental issues, which are often bound up with European Union legislation. The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution is currently considering such issues in its study on environmental standards, which should be published in the autumn.

8. As the focus of the review is to reinforce integration within the EA and SEPA, it is concerned with issues that span more than one regulatory regime. It will not look at the effectiveness of detailed legislative provisions in specific policy areas. Neither will it examine bids for new powers. Such issues can be considered separately on their own merits. Separate reviews are taking place on fisheries legislation, the introduction of Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control, water abstraction and water pollution legislation. The review does not affect the special arrangements for the EA's flood defence funding and committees. Nor is the review considering integration of the Agencies themselves.

Consultation

9. The review is being carried out by the relevant Government Departments - including the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), the Scottish Office, the Welsh Office and MAFF - and the Agencies. Outside views will be an important input at an early stage. We have suggested a possible structure for your response in Annex A of this consultation paper. Please reply by 20 October.

10. If your response relates to the Environment Agency please send it to:

Sarah Russell
DETR
EASN1
Zone 6/D13
Ashdown House
123 Victoria Street
London SW1E 6DE
Fax: 020 7944 4412

11. If your comments are particularly concerned with the Environment Agency's activities in Wales, please also send a copy of your response to:

Carys Clarke
Welsh Office
Environment Division
Cathays Park
Cardiff CF1 3NQ
Fax: 01222 825 5008

12. If your response relates to SEPA please send it to:

Ian McDougall
Scottish Office
Agriculture, Envrionment and Fisheries Division
1-J Victoria Quay
Edinburgh EH6 6QQ
Fax: 0131 244 0245

13. If your response concerns both Agencies, please send it to both DETR and the Scottish Office.

14. We may wish to make responses to this consultation paper available to Parliament and open to inspection in the DETR and Scottish Office libraries. Unless you say that your response is confidential we shall assume that you have no objection to us treating it in this way.

15. We have sent this consultation paper to the bodies listed in Annex B. Comments are equally welcome from anyone else. Further copies are available from the addresses and fax numbers given in paragraphs 10-12 above, or by telephone from:

DETR - Sarah Russell, tel. 020 7944 6593;

Welsh Office - Carys Clarke, tel. 01222 825 3168; or

Scottish Office - Ian McDougall, tel. 0131 244 0397.

16. If you have any queries, or would like us to send copies of the consultation paper to anyone else, please contact Sarah Russell in DETR, Carys Clarke in the Welsh Office or Ian McDougall in the Scottish Office on the above numbers.

18. The review is likely to lead to specific proposals for legislative changes. We would expect any major proposals to be the subject of a separate consultation exercise, probably in early 1999.

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Published 3 August 1998
Review of Legislation Affecting Integration Within the Environment Agency: Interim Report of the Steering Group (June 2000)
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