AQW 20831/17-22

Mr John Blair
Alliance Party
South Antrim

Tabled Date: 23/06/2021
Answered On Date: 07/07/2021
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to outline the preliminary work his Department is conducting in preparation for the enactment of Environment Bill.

Answer:

The Environment Bill provides important enabling powers for a number of policies around resource efficiency and significant programmes of work to implement these including extended producer responsibility, deposit/return scheme and waste tracking, are being taken forward. The following work is progressing on the environmental governance aspects of the Bill.

A discussion document on environmental plans, principles and governance aspects elicited around 70 responses from a wide range of stakeholders. The views expressed by respondents will inform implementation decisions taken now and in the future. A synopsis of these responses will be published shortly.

With regard to implementation of the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) in Northern Ireland, my Department is working with Defra and the Interim OEP on potential staffing requirements, budget contributions and allocations, and cooperation arrangements with other organisations within and outside Northern Ireland.

I decided that Northern Ireland should participate in common interim arrangements for the handling of complaints related to alleged non-compliance with environmental law by public authorities. The Interim Environmental Governance Secretariat (IEGS) was established as a precursor to the OEP and DAERA has been integrated into it in respect of NI complaints since it was formed on 1 January 2021. The IEGS was superseded by the Interim OEP, with a broader remit, on 1 July 2021. The new body continues to handle complaints, with Northern Ireland represented as before.

I recently sought, and received, the agreement of the AERA Committee and my Executive colleagues to appointing a Northern Ireland non-executive member to the Interim OEP board to help develop its strategy. My officials are working with the Commissioner for Public Appointments NI to progress the recruitment process, with the aim of making an appointment by September.

We are developing a draft Environment Strategy for Northern Ireland, taking into account the views of stakeholders. It is intended that the environment strategy will become Northern Ireland’s first Environmental Improvement Plan. A public consultation on the draft strategy will be published as soon as practicable.

We are preparing a policy statement on environmental principles for Northern Ireland, to which all NI departments and UK Government Ministers, when making policy for NI, must have due regard. A draft will be published for public consultation in due course.

A draft supplementary legislative consent memorandum for two devolved matters that fall outside the scope of the legislative consent motion passed by the Assembly on 30 June 2020 has been prepared. The AERA Committee recently received a draft of the memorandum and, subject to the agreement of my Executive colleagues, I hope to bring forward the motion for debate immediately after summer recess.