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Wildlife Trusts denounce Truss government Bill due back in the Commons today

Today, Wednesday 18th January, the Retained EU Law Bill (REUL) is scheduled to have its Report Stage and third and final reading in the House of Commons, before moving on to the House of Lords.

If it is not scrapped, it will have profound and alarming consequences for the South West and right across the UK’s four nations, Government departments in red tape when they are already fully stretched tackling the nature and climate crisis.

In addition to having serious implications for environmental protections in England, the Bill will have major consequences for environmental law and legal certainty in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The Scottish Government has strongly opposed the Bill, calling it a “deregulatory race to the bottom” and the Welsh Government has labelled the Bill a “power grab”.

Craig Bennett, Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts, says:

“This appalling Bill means a huge number of laws will cease to exist on 31st December this year unless a minister decides to keep or amend them individually. This is fundamentally anti-democratic because it should not be ministers that make this decision, it should be Parliament that decides – and only Parliament.

“There’s no way that Defra can make sensible decisions about this staggering number of laws in such a short time. If Rishi Sunak cares about the environment he should rip up this piece of legislation and stop this Bill that poses such a massive attack on nature.”

Man riding bike down path by a river with houses in background.

Photo, Ben Hall/2020VISION

Harry Barton, Chief Executive of Devon Wildlife Trust, says:

“It's often said that our woods, meadows, wild birds and rivers are victims of death by a thousand cuts.  We’ve witnessed a gradual erosion of wildlife through decades of small decisions that have ignored the needs of plants and animals.  But the right kind of action - to invest in a better slurry store, to build a bit of green space into a new housing development – can create crucial openings for wildlife and bring about its recovery.  Well targeted regulation and protections, which define limits, direct behaviour and set standards, are absolutely key to these incremental steps forward.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently stated his strong commitment for nature’s recovery at the Biodiversity Conference in Montreal.  There are many things he could do to help make this happen, including setting clear targets, ending perverse subsidies, and funding farmers to protect wildlife and reduce pesticides. One thing he should strike off the list immediately is a hugely time-consuming, expensive and counter-productive bonfire of those very regulations that are there to protect the precious natural heritage that we still have.”

A recent poll by Unchecked showed that 74% of the public think we have the right amount of regulation, and 44% feel we don’t have enough.
Harry Barton, CEO of Devon Wildlife Trust

The Bill, originally proposed by Jacob Rees-Mogg and the brainchild of the Liz Truss government, puts thousands of laws that protect nature and wildlife at risk – and also threatens regulations to safeguard public health, working conditions, and food standards. It undermines the democratic process and will give UK Government ministers the power to drop vital environmental laws without any public scrutiny during what will prove to be a costly and bureaucratic process.

The Wildlife Trusts, alongside other major environmental NGOs, business groups, legal workers, and trade unions, are calling for this Bill to be withdrawn immediately. 

The REUL Bill is the UK Government’s plan for the more than 2,400 pieces of legislation still in force. For civil servants, the task of assessing and dealing with each piece of REUL is vast. The Bill is set to remove thousands of important EU-derived protections by the end of the year. It sets out broad powers and short timescales for the Government to do this. There is no indication of which laws will be lost and which will be assimilated into domestic legislation, with or without changes. The UK Government claims that changes to REUL could strengthen protections for nature. However, Clause 15 of the Bill states that any changes to rules cannot increase the regulatory “burden”, meaning protections cannot be improved. The direction of travel that this Bill promotes is therefore abundantly clear – it is deregulatory.

The Wildlife Trusts have three key concerns about the REUL Bill and its impact upon our ability to protect the environment:

The ‘Sunset Clause’. Clause 1 of the Bill contains a sunset provision which would mean that, unless other action is taken to retain, replace or amend REUL, it would automatically be revoked on 31st December 2023. Far from removing red tape, the REUL Bill is set to create extra work and uncertainty for industry, conservation organisations, and government departments. Estimates have put the cost to the taxpayer of this bureaucratic process in the tens of millions of pounds.

Lack of democratic process. The REUL Bill undermines democratic processes. It proposes wholesale change to the statute book with no parliamentary scrutiny, enabling ministers to repeal, revoke, replace or amend any REUL without explanation.

Threat to nature. The REUL Bill is one element of the UK Government’s attack on nature. The loss of environmental REUL would impede the UK’s ability to meet the UN nature COP15 agreement it successfully helped negotiate just last month. What’s more, Clause 15 of the Bill states that changes to rules cannot increase the regulatory “burden”, meaning that this Bill can only accelerate deregulation and cannot strengthen protections for nature.

Yellowhammer dead at the side of the road

Yellowhammer dead at the side of the road © Shutterstock

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Editor's Notes

Our concerns – further details

The Wildlife Trusts have three key concerns about the REUL Bill and its impact upon our ability to protect the environment:

The ‘Sunset Clause’

Clause 1 of the Bill contains a sunset provision which would mean that, unless other action is taken to retain, replace or amend REUL, it would automatically be revoked on 31st December 2023.

The task of assessing and dealing with each piece of REUL is vast, especially for Defra. It is simply not feasible to assess and deal with over a thousand pieces of REUL before the deadline. The impossible timescale means that important legislation is likely to be overlooked or lost by default. Whilst some laws may be given a later sunset of 2026, there is no clarity on which legislation will be given this extension or how this decision is made. This power is also only available to Ministers of the Crown and not to devolved administrations.

The tight timescale means we risk seeing replacement legislation written in haste and poorly executed, leading to lack of clarity that then has to be challenged through the courts. We could also see greater uncertainty as case law rules and principles fall away, resulting in increased legal challenges through Judicial Review, or complaints to the Office for Environmental Protection.

Devolved governments have made it clear they do not have capacity or time to deal with the workload created by the REUL Bill. For example, Northern Ireland officials are developing a list of REUL in scope of the bill, with over 500 pieces of REUL identified so far. However, with no government currently in place, we have no idea how this REUL will be assessed by the end of the year. Far from removing red tape, the REUL Bill is set to create extra work and uncertainty for both industry, conservation organisations, and government departments. Estimates have put the cost to the taxpayer of this bureaucratic process in the tens of millions.

Lack of democratic process

The REUL Bill undermines democratic processes. It proposes wholesale change to the statute book with no parliamentary scrutiny, enabling ministers to repeal, revoke, replace or amend any REUL without explanation.

The UK Government’s approach to reviewing REUL has so far been opaque and impenetrable, with no consultation with expert stakeholders or the public. All amendments and replacements to REUL will be dealt with without parliamentary debate, involvement of the House of Lords, or a requirement for consultation with advisory bodies. It should be the decision of Parliament to revoke or reform our environmental protections – not the whim of unscrutinised UK Government Ministers.

REUL also undermines the devolved powers of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, by making decisions in Westminster on areas, like the environment, which are usually devolved. There is no formal route in the Bill for the devolved governments or parliaments to approve Statutory Instruments to restate, reform or repeal REUL in areas of devolved competence. Both the Welsh and Scottish Governments have written to the UK Government to express their concerns in this area.

Threat to nature

The REUL Bill is one element of the UK Government’s attack on nature. The loss of environmental REUL would impede the UK’s ability to meet the UN COP15 agreement it successfully helped negotiate just last month. We are particularly worried about the fate of the below pieces of EU-derived legislation: 

  • The Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, known as the Habitats Regulations
  • The Conservation of Offshore Marine Habitats and Species Regulations 2017
  • Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004
  • Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2011
  • Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) (England and Wales) Regulations 2017 Regulations

The Wildlife Trusts

The Wildlife Trusts are making the world wilder and helping to ensure that is nature is part of everyone’s lives. We are a grassroots movement of 46 charities with more than 850,000 members and 38,000 volunteers. No matter where you are in Britain, there is a Wildlife Trust inspiring people and saving, protecting, and standing up for the natural world. With the support of our members, we care for and restore special places for nature on land and run marine conservation projects and collect vital data on the state of our seas. Every Wildlife Trust works within its local community to inspire people to create a wilder future – from advising thousands of landowners on how to manage their land to benefit wildlife, to connecting hundreds of thousands of school children with nature every year.

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