Historic England’s latest Planning Bulletin notes how the recently issued draft Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill fails to include the historic environment in the majority of the provisions, and its omission of heritage references ‘has the potential to exclude heritage from the remit of the proposed Office for Environmental Protection.’
Historic England writes:
Defra has issued a draft Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill, which sets out how the Government will maintain environmental standards as the UK leaves the EU, develop the vision of the 25 Year Environment Plan, and create the independent Office for Environmental Protection (OEP). The draft Bill commits the Government to publishing a policy statement which will set out how Ministers should interpret and apply environmental principles. It also commits Government to have a plan for environmental improvement. The Bill is accompanied by a Policy Paper, a Statement of Impacts, and an Information Paper on the Policy Statement on Environmental Principles. Defra has also issued the Government’s response to May’s consultation on Environmental Principles and Governance after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union. The historic environment is not included in the majority of the provisions within the draft Bill; in this, it differs in approach to the cultural and natural environment to that within the recently published 25 Year Environment Plan (January 2018). The omission of heritage from the Bill has the potential to exclude heritage from the remit of the proposed Office for Environmental Protection.
