Office for Environment Protection Releases Report

The newly created Office for Environmental Protection releases it's first major report outlining the current government short falls. It lays out recommends immediate actions from an initial stock take to providing a legal basis for action.

"The Government’s first 25 YEP, published in 2018, was an ambitious attempt to confront the challenges facing the environment. It set a wide context, outlining a range of environmental issues affecting England and listing 47 strategies, alongside an associated Outcome Indicator Framework (OIF)2 to provide an evidence base for assessing progress. While we applaud its ambition, progress has been slow. Four years on, it is time to turn ambition into action and outcomes.

Regrettably, environmental laws and government strategy and policy have not yet proved successful in significantly slowing down, halting or reversing biodiversity decline or the unsustainable use of resources or the pollution of the environment. However, the recently enacted Environment Act gives government new tools and a fresh opportunity to make a difference.

Well-crafted targets can drive delivery. We found a proliferation of environmental targets, with many insufficiently coherent, connected or applied. As a result, environmental targets are not driving the scale or urgency of response required, and are frequently missed. With statutory targets in prospect, government has the opportunity to address this, and to set a hierarchy of ambitious targets and indicators that will support progress."

Environmental issues are pressing and biodiversity is in long-term decline. We need; A comprehensive stocktake, Immediate prioritisation

Improving the vision through greater; Clarity, Commitment

Targets are crucial for directing action and assessing progress. We recommend; Coherence, Hierarchy, Ambition, Legal underpinning

Strategy: Coherence, Integration, Evaluation

Accountability and responsibility, Applying the environmental principles

Monitoring, assessment and reporting must be; Purpose driven, Authoritative, Credible

Read the report