Wildlife watchdog ‘should be best in the world’

THE UK’S air, water and wildlife should be protected with a “world-leading watchdog” modelled on the influential National Audit Office after Brexit, MPs have urged.

The new independent body, the Environmental Enforcement and Audit Office, is needed to ensure that rules and enforcement on protecting the environment carried out by European institutions are not lost, they warn.

The watchdog should have a range of powers including taking the Government and other public bodies to court where standards are breached, and initiating their own investigations including into complaints made by the public.

It must be accountable to and overseen by Parliament to guarantee its independence from Government and prevent its budget being cut in future, the parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee said.

The committee has also called for legally binding targets on key issues to ensure the ambitions the Government has in its 25-year plan for the environment are met.

While the Government has promised new legislation to cover areas such as air, waste, water and chemicals that cannot be copied and pasted into UK law through the EU (Withdrawal) Act, the committee has urged it to go further.

Water, seas, waste, air quality, soil health, habitats, wildlife, trees and plants and access to environmental justice should all be covered by measurable targets as part of new legislation planned by the Government, it urged.

There should be five-yearly plans to ensure Ministers are on track to meet their long-term goals, in the same way progress on emissions reductions is managed through five-yearly “carbon budgets” under the Climate Change Act.

The watchdog should advise on the setting of targets for the fiveyearly plans and scrutinise how Government and other public bodies are delivering them.

Wakefield MP Mary Creagh, chairwoman of the Environmental Audit Committee, said: “If we want a world-leading environment, we need a world-leading environmental watchdog.”