The Office for Environmental Protection has submitted advice to the Defra Secretary of State on reviewing and updating Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan.
Steve Reed, Secretary of State Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has announced a review of the EIP with the intention of developing ‘ambitious new plans to save nature’.
He has formally requested advice from the OEP to help inform this review.
Dame Glenys Stacey, Chair of the OEP said: “In our most recent report on progress against the EIP, we found Government was largely off track to meet its environmental ambitions. We called on Government to speed up, to scale up, and to make sure its actions stacked up.
“We welcome this review as an opportunity to ensure that the EIP is truly this Government’s central strategic plan to achieve its environmental ambitions and commitments, and for it to be transparent about how it is to be done.
“Government has been clear about its ambitions for house building and clean energy. As it develops its plans for such large scale initiatives, and as it reviews the EIP, it must take the opportunity to align them to nature, rather than work against it, to enhance nature rather than further deplete it. Getting this right will mean tackling deeply concerning negative environmental trends, and that will also provide benefits across Government’s other key priorities.”
Building on recommendations already provided through the OEP’s EIP progress reports and other work, the OEP’s advice aims to help inform an effective prioritisation of actions that will have the most impact across goal areas and targets. The advice also reiterates the need for transparent delivery planning and for each step within the EIP to be explicitly linked to specific targets or commitments.
It identifies five priority actions that will deliver benefits across EIP goal areas, the new Government’s environmental priority areas and contribute to meeting a number of targets:
- Get nature friendly farming right
- Maximise contribution from protected wildlife sites
- Speed up action in marine environments
- Set out clear mechanisms for reconciling competing demands for use of land and seas
- Develop a circular economy framework
The advice also calls for action to ensure successful delivery of the plan, including mobilising funding, including private investment, regulating more effectively and harnessing support from stakeholders.
“We look forward to providing further independent advice or expanding on the points made in this submission as we continue to work with Defra on this important review,” added Dame Glenys.
Background
Government has announced its intention to undertake a rapid statutory review of its Environmental Improvement Plan ("EIP") to ensure it is fit for purpose. On 22 August 2024, the Secretary of State wrote to the OEP to request that we provide our formal advice on reviewing and updating the EIP, pursuant to our duties under section 30(1)(b) of the Environment Act 2021. The Secretary of State's letter requested our advice on the following specific matters:
"What recommendation does the OEP have for prioritising actions that have the biggest impact on significantly improving the natural environment and delivering the EA targets within a refreshed Environmental Improvement Plan? What recommendations does the OEP have for re-prioritising actions with less significant impact?"
"What recommendation does OEP have for highlighting risks and inter-dependencies within the plan? Particularly on the interdependency between statutory targets and the domestic implementation of other commitments, such as 30x30."
The letter also welcomed "views on how to streamline the content of the EIP to focus on delivering the Environment Act targets and what can be done to implement commitments effectively to improve our natural environment".
This statement constitutes the OEP's formal public statement required under section 30(5)(b) Environment Act 2021
The OEP’s advice letter and the request letter from the Secretary of State are published here. You can view them by clicking on the blue download buttons on this page.
