Environmental Standards after Brexit

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:58 pm on 27 March 2019.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 1:58, 27 March 2019

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.