The UK government has published
its timetable for reforming environmental legislation following the
recommendations of the red tape challenge
Defra has outlined its plans to
remove, condense and simplify environmental regulation over the next four
years, pledging to prioritise changes that will make “meaningful
improvements for business” and reduce the “administrative burden” of compliance.
In its implementation plan, the
environment department confirms that the Landfill Allowance Scheme will be
scrapped next year alongside regulations requiring construction sites to
complete waste management plans, despite critical reactions in March when Defra originally announced the
move. Defra’s plans state: “Industry consensus
is that business would generate the requirements of the [Site Waste Management
Plans] Regulations regardless of their existence but that getting rid of them
would save businesses the associated administrative burden.”
CRS’s Head Of Environment,
comments ‘ Environmental Legislation needs a clearer structure similar to
health and safety, the sector specific approach at the moment is not fit for
purpose and encourages organisations not to start to develop a legal register’
The environment department will
consult on removing the regulations in December, with the final decision
expected to by October 2013.
According to the implementation
plan, consultations will be launched in January 2013 into how to improve the
producer responsibility regimes for packaging and batteries – with Defra
particularly looking at exempting more small businesses from the batteries
regulations. Reviews of the regimes are to be finished by January 2014.
New guidance on cost sharing
under the REACH legislation will be published before the end of the year,
according to the plan, and by April 2014 Defra aims to have simplified the
enforcement of the REACH rules by merging the REACH Enforcement Regulations
2008 with the Persistent Organic Pollutants Regulations 2007 and the Mercury
Export and Data (Enforcement) Regulations 2010.
By April 2013, the department
plans to have created a more streamlined environmental permitting regime,
enabling all firms to decide the sequencing of planning and permitting
applications. Meanwhile, the Environment Agency will publish guidance on how to
apply for environmental permits and planning permission simultaneously by
November 2012.
A new online legislation
library, called Defra-lex, will also go live next April, and will provide
organisations and environment professionals with a “one-stop-shop” for all
publications related to Defra-legislation including guidance and consultation documents.
Defra’s implantation plan also
covers work to be undertaken over the next four years by the Environment Agency
and Natural England to improve the way in which legislation is
enforced. The agency, for example, will be looking at how to enable businesses
to upload information about hazardous waste electronically in a bid to cut
paperwork and, by April 2014, it has pledged to simplify its guidance and
shorten documents by 25%.
The agency also aims to publish
plans by next summer on how it will tailor its regulatory approach to the 14
main business sectors it works across, and by November 2013 it will have also
trialled its EMS+ scheme –
where third-parties complete compliance checks.
The plan also confirms that a
progress report on improving the implementation of the Habitats Directive is due to be published next spring,
and that by the end of 2014 Defra will have reviewed and streamlined air
quality legislation, particularly to ensure local authorities duties are
aligned with EU targets.