Labour and Reform MPs are seeking a parliamentary Brexit scrutiny committee to monitor and decide when the UK should diverge from EU law. Since Brexit, 28 new or revised EU environmental laws have not been adopted by the UK, and four UK laws have been changed to regress protections on habitats, pesticides and fisheries. The absence of a specialised parliamentary body leaves MPs without proper scrutiny or accountability over Brexit implementation and regulatory divergence. The planning and infrastructure bill overrides the EU habitats directive and allows rare habitats such as chalk streams to be destroyed if developers pay a nature restoration levy.
The analysis by the Guardian and the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) has found that since Brexit the EU has brought forward 28 new, revised or upgraded pieces of environmental legislation that the UK has not adopted, and the UK has actively chosen to regress by changing four different pieces of legislation including on protected habitats, pesticides and fisheries.
This data from the Guardian and IEEP makes the case for having a scrutiny committee looking at if we diverge, and if we strengthen or weaken environmental protections. MPs aren't scrutinising this at all at the moment; they don't even know about what's going on. One major issue is the planning and infrastructure bill, which overrides the EU's habitats directive and allows rare habitats such as chalk streams to be destroyed if developers pay a nature restoration levy to government.
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