Members of parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee have asked the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to provide more detail on its future plans following a recent evidence session.
Key concerns include the impact of expected Spending Review funding pressures on the Office for Environmental Protection, which monitors government’s progress delivering environmental improvements, and the effect on nature of regulatory reforms.
Last month, environment secretary Steve Reed told an EAC evidence session that the department was planning for “flat cash” for the Office for Environmental Protection – along with other parts of Defra – ahead of June’s Spending Review.
He said the OEP would “have to do better with less”, like the rest of the department – although he refused to predict what the outcome of the Spending Review would be.
EAC chair Toby Perkins has this week written to Reed seeking more detailed responses on future funding for the OEP with particular reference to staffing, the regulatory-reform drive, and cross-government working.
The evidence session on 24 March heard that since the OEP’s foundation in 2021, the organisation has had a cap imposed on recruitment and is currently smaller than was originally proposed during its Brexit-driven creation.
Perkins directly asked Reed whether the Johnson government’s 2021 commitment to provide the OEP with a five-year indicative budget, with a ringfenced budget for each spending-review period, remains in force.
He also asked Reed what – if any – plans Defra has to vary or remove headcount restrictions applied to the OEP as a condition of continued funding.
Last month, prime minister Keir Starmer set out proposals for a new clampdown on the work of regulators, arguing that the move is necessary “to kickstart economic growth”. Last week, the PM told members of parliament’s Liaison Committee that speed of decision-making was one problem area in relation to the current regulatory environment, particularly for planning.
In his letter, dated 15 April, EAC chair Perkins told Reed that the committee is interested to learn more about the government’s strategy to deliver increased growth alongside improved environmental protections. At last month’s hearing, the secretary of state asserted that delivering both at the same time was possible.
Perkins said: “Please set out the indicators you plan to use to monitor trends in the effectiveness of environmental protection measures as a result of changes in regulatory approaches, and the steps you plan to ensure continued protections if the indicators suggest that the measures are not as effective as expected.”
Elsewhere in his letter, Perkins asked Reed to detail how Defra is using its work on the government’s five missions to put nature at the heart of cross-departmental work.
Perkins urged the environment secretary to set out the arrangements made for Defra ministers and senior officials to attend meetings of each current mission board and contribute to the policy-formation and delivery plans of each.
The committee chair is seeking a response by 1 May.