Environment Act 2021

The Environment Act 2021 received Royal Assent on 9 November 2021. As it stands none of the relevant sections of the Act are currently in force but they are likely to be brought into effect later in 2022/2023 as the necessary secondary regulations are put in place.

Overview

The Act will set statutory targets in four key areas, these targets must be of at least 15 years in duration and be proposed by late 2022:

• air quality
• biodiversity
• water
• waste and resource managment

The Act also creates a new Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) with a wide-ranging brief, including supervising the discharge of environmental duties by the government and other public authorities. This includes powers to investigate alleged breaches of environmental law by public bodies, to issue its own non-binding rulings on alleged breaches and (in effect) to apply to enforce that ruling through the Courts by way of an 'Environmental Review'.

The Act implements the Government's ambitions for improving the natural environment which were previously set out in the 25- Year Environment Plan. The Environment Bill required the government to publish an Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) and the government has pledged to set interim targets for each five-year period and lay out steps it intends to take to improve the natural environment. The 25- Year Environment Plan will be adopted as the first EIP. The OEP is intended to hold the government to account for meeting these targets.

The Act applies across the UK, however parts of it only apply to one or more jusridiction.

Legal Framework

The first part of the Act puts duties on the Government in relation to environmental governance. This includes requiring the Government to:

• put in place measures to allow the Government to set and meet long-term targets related to the natural environment and people’s enjoyment of the environment;
• set at least one long-term target each related to priority areas of air, water, biodiversity, resource efficiency and waste by October 2022;
• set and meet an air quality target for fine particulate matter;
• set and meet a target related to the abundance of species;
• put in place the processes for setting and amending long-term targets
• have an Environmental Improvement Plan containing steps it intends to take to improve the natural environment. The plan must be for at least 15 years. The 25- Year Environment Plan‘A Green Future: Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment‘ published by the Government in 2018 can be treated as such a plan; and
• collect and publish data related to measuring progress for improving the natural environment and meeting targets.

Proposed Targets

In March 2022 the Government published a consultation seeking views on new targets under the Environment Act 2021 with the aim of improving the natural environment.

Targets proposed within the consultation are as follows:

Air Quality

• A maximum Annual Mean Concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) to 10 micrograms (μg) per cubic metre by 2040.
• A reduction in the Population Exposure of PM2.5 by 35% by 2040 (compared to a base year of 2018)

Biodiversity

• Halt the decline in species by 2030 (Species abundance target); and then
• Increase species abundance by at least 10% by 2042 compared to 2030 levels.
• Improve the England-level GB Red List Index of Species extinction risk by 2042, compared to 2022 levels (Exctinction risk of native species - Red List Index target)
• Create or restore in excess of 500,000 hectares of a range of wildlife-rich habitat outside protected sites by 2042, compared to 2022 levels (Wider Habitats target)
• 70% of the designated features in the Marine Protected Area (MPA) network to be in favourable condition by 2042, with the remainder in recovering condition, and additional reporting on changes in individual feature condition (Marine Protection target).
• Increase tree canopy and woodland cover from 14.5% to 17.5% of total land area in England by 2050 (Woodland Cover target).

Waste

• Reduce residual waste (excluding major mineral wastes) kg per capita by 50% by 2042 from the 2019 level of approximately 560kg per capita.

Water

• Reduce the length of rivers and estuaries polluted by target susbstances (cadmium, nickel, lead, copper, zinc, arsenic) from abandoned metal mines by 50% by 2037 (Abandoned metal mines target)
• Reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution load from agriculture to the water environment by at least 40% by 2037 against a 2018 baseline (Agriculture target)
• A 70% reduction in phosphorus loadings from wastewater/sewage effluent by 2037 against a 2020 baseline (Wastewater target)
• A reduction in Distribution Input (DI) over population by 20% from the 2019/2020 reporting years by 2037/2038 (Water demand target)

Part 3 of the Environment Act 2021 - Waste and Resource Efficiency

Part 3 of the Act relates to resource and waste efficiency.

Producer Responsibility

The Act allows Ministers in England and the Devolved Administrations to make regulations about producer responsibility obligations which could be made to prevent a product or material becoming waste, reduce the amount of a product or material that becomes waste, or sustain a minimum level of reuse, redistribution, recovery or recycling of products or materials. Further detail on this can be found in Schedule 4.

Regulations can also be made that require payments from those involved in the manufacturing, processing, distributing or supplying of specific products or materials to contribute to the disposal costs of those products or materials. Requirements about what these regulations must or may include is given in Schedule 5.

Manufacturers and producers may also be required through subsequent legislation to provide information about the resource efficiency of their products. Detail of what may be required is given in Schedule 6. Schedule 7 gives detail on what regulations may require in relation to durability, reparability and recyclability of products .

Deposit Schemes

The Act allows Ministers in England and the Devolved Administrations to make regulations about deposit schemes. These may require a person supplied with an item to pay a deposit which is refunded when that item is collected (e.g. a deposit paid on a drinks bottle that is refunded when the drink is consumed and the bottle returned). Schedule 8 gives detail on these schemes.

Single Use Items

The Ministers of England and the DEveloved Administrations may make regulations requiring sellers of goods or services to charge for single use items. The goods this will apply to and how it will operate will be specified in subsequent legislation. Schedule 9 gives detail on charges for single use items.

Separation of Waste

Measures are introduced regarding the separation of waste in England. These are made through amendments to the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Details of the changes can be seen in the Updates section of the 1990 Act.

Waste Tracking

The Act allows for future regulations to be made, to introduce an electronic waste tracking system. The system may require information about waste to be entered onto an electronic system by waste controllers (e.g. anyone who imports, produces, keeps, treats, manages or disposes of waste), or waste regulation authorities (e.g. the Environment Agency) about the processing, movement or transfer of waste. These changes are made through amendments to the Environmental Protection Act 1990, or for Northern Ireland, via The Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997.

Hazardous Waste

The Environmental Protection Act 1990 is also amended to allow further regulations to be made to strengthen restrictions regarding hazardous waste for England and Wales. Equivalent regulations may be made for Northern Ireland under The Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997.

Import and Export of Waste

The Environmental Protection Act 1990 is also amended to allow further regulations to be made in order to prohibit or restrict waste imports and exports.

Charging Schemes

Changes are made to the Environment Act 1995 to allow charging schemes to be made in relation to producer responsibility schemes. This would require the relevant agency to recover costs incurred by running a scheme from its participants. Similar changes are also made in relation to The End of Life Vehicles (Producer Responsibility) Regulations 2005 and The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013.

Charging schemes may also be established to allow the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales to recover costs incurred in relation to preventing the unauthorised or harmful deposit, treatment or disposal of waste under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016. This would allow fees to be charged to those in breach of a waste permit, or that operate a waste site without holding the relevant permit. Similar changes are made through amendments to The Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 and The Waste Management Licensing Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003, for Northern Ireland.