5. What measures will the Minister take to promote the highest environmental standards after Brexit? OAQ53656

Thank you. I am committed to ensuring there will be no regression in environmental standards as a result of Brexit. I want Wales to not only maintain our current standards, but build upon them. Last week, I launched our consultation on environmental principles and governance post Brexit, which will run until 9 June.

I think we very much welcome the work the Welsh Government is doing to make sure that we do have robust protections in place and in fact we enhance those protections after Brexit. But we note, as we speak today, that there are young people up in the gallery looking down on our proceedings, and, for them, some of the defence in protections for our natural environment will be the ability of the citizen to take on Governments—Welsh Government, UK Government and others. At the moment, we have that ability, as we've seen through organisations such as Client Earth, challenging not only the UK Government, but also Governments in Hungary and Italy and elsewhere, under European legislation. So, can we at this point, Minister, say categorically that there will still be the ability for citizens and citizens' organisations to challenge Governments when they do not live up to their environmental responsibilities?  

We can. I think there's been a little bit of misinformation. Clearly, when we do leave the EU, UK citizens will no longer have access to the citizens' complaint procedure, which enables the EU Commission, as you refer, to act on their behalf, including the ability to refer cases to the European Court of Justice. However, they can obviously take their complaints to bodies such as the public services ombudsman and the National Assembly itself, and they do already receive citizens' complaints. But I think it is really important that we don't have a dilution of our rights that currently flow from our membership of the EU. That's why we published our consultation on the environmental principles and governance post EU exit. What I'm doing is seeking views on what an oversight body should be able to do, and I think it's really important that people feed into that. So, I would encourage Members and their constituents to do that. I think we need to know whether a body should be able to conduct investigations, what information they would require if they did that, assess the validity of complaints, have the ability to act in appropriate cases, and also make recommendations arising from their findings. I think it's really important that we do ensure that there is no gap post EU exit.

Minister, we know that in England there'll be a 25-year environmental plan, and the draft environment Bill includes proposals for an office of environmental protection, to which, presumably, citizens would have the right—and it might be analogous to the Commission taking up the citizen's cause, which of course is why that form of very quick legal access is so effective. You've decided on a consultation, and I just wonder—but you have said you do not, at this stage, favour the UK Government's approach as regards England, and I just wonder if you do need to rethink this question of an enforcement body that is able to take up complaints brought to it by the citizen, not to give them advice as to how they then go to court. The citizen doesn't really have that capacity very easily, and many bodies have told us that this is what is crucial to the robustness of current EU regulations.

Obviously the consultation will feed into the future policy. I think it's also important to recognise that we have a different governance gap to England. So, we've got the Environment (Wales) Act 2016, we've got the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. I've had a few discussions with Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Ministers around this issue, and certainly, if we think we need to have a look at it post consultation, I'll be very happy to do so. It is absolutely right that, as I said in my answer to Huw Irranca-Davies, we don't see that dilution, not just in our standards, but in our rights too.