Scrap the Bill – not our environmental protections

Charlotte Owen
, 20 October 2022
Scrap the Bill – not our environmental protections
Barn Owl © Bob Eade

By Jess Price

Conservation Officer

The UK government is in turmoil but the current political situation does not reduce the urgency with which we must act – and demand action - to Defend Nature. If anything, it’s now more urgent than ever.

The government is already running on an incredibly tight schedule to meet the UK’s legally-binding climate and biodiversity targets by 2030 – just eight years away. So far, progress is woefully slow and the government’s recent attack on nature threatens to set us back even further, with potentially disastrous results.

There’s simply no time to waste and the new leadership must immediately put a stop to the government’s attack on nature, and drive forward urgent action to protect and restore the natural world.

One of the main threats posed by the government’s attack on nature is the Retained EU Law Bill. This deeply unpopular legislation will automatically scrap EU-derived laws by the end of 2023, unless the government acts to keep or replace them beforehand.

Some of our most fundamental environmental protections and regulations are EU-derived laws, including the laws that protect wild places and ensure standards for water quality, pollution and the use of pesticides. There are 2,400 EU-derived laws in total but Defra has the most of any government department: 570 laws, all linked to food, farming and the environment.

All 570 of these laws would have to be assessed to decide whether to retain, reform or revoke them – essentially whether to keep, change or chuck each one. This is a monumental task, which may be genuinely unachievable by the rapidly-approaching deadline. By the end of 2023, any laws that haven’t been assessed would be automatically revoked. This puts our fundamental environmental protections and regulations at real risk.

The Retained EU Law Bill is not fit for purpose, so we’re calling on the government to withdraw it immediately, and asking Sussex MPs to do the same. Instead, we urgently need the government to prioritise its environmental commitments; to strengthen and improve our vital environmental protections; and to prioritise the actions and policies needed to deliver nature’s recovery by 2030.

You can read more in this open letter to Jacob Rees-Mogg, signed by a coalition of organisations including The Wildlife Trusts.

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