Environmental Standards after Brexit

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:00 pm on 27 March 2019.

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Photo of David Melding David Melding Conservative 2:00, 27 March 2019

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.