Provisions of Environment Act 2021 coming into force

The Environment Act 2021 (Commencement No. 3) Regulations 2022 was published on 13 May 2022 to bring into force provisions of the Environment Act 2021 (c. 30). This is the third set of commencement regulations under the Act issued by The Secretary of State. Some of these provisions will come into force on 10 May 2022 and some will be in force on 30 September 2022.

Regulations 2 of this commencement brings into force these sections on 10th May 2022 including:

• Section 17 mandates the Secretary of State to prepare an environmental policy statement.
• Section 18 of the Act specifies how the Secretary of State must create and publish the environmental principles policy statement.
• Subsection 19(5) states that section 14(2) of the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021 (asp 4) does not apply to Ministers of the Crown when formulating policy in Scotland pertaining to reserved issues.
• Subsection 19(6) states that the word “reserved issues” has the same meaning as defined in the Scotland Act 1998.#
• Section 20 requires the Minister in charge of a Bill submitted into either House of Parliament to provide a statement to that House on the effect of the law on the existing level of environmental protection if it contains a provision that, if implemented, would be environmental law.

Regulations 3 of this commencement brings into force sections on 30th September 2022 including:

• Section 109 establishes species conservation strategies and requires local planning authorities, as well as any other public authority specified in regulations by the Secretary of State, to work with Natural England to develop and implement a strategy, as well as to consider any relevant strategy as they carry out their functions.
• Section 111 modifies the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (c.69) licensing scheme to be compliant with the requirements of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017.
• Section 116 and Schedule 17 are being started in order to make rules that would impose restrictions on designated firms who use forest risk commodities in their UK commercial activity.

Sources:The Environment Act 2021 (Commencement No. 3) Regulations 2022, published on 9 May 2022 on legislation.gov.