Steve Reed OBE, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has published an interim statement on the strategic findings from the rapid review of the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) that was launched in July 2024. The statement also provides an update on future plans for revising the EIP.
We welcome the review of the EIP and were pleased to see the following recommendations for improvement in Steve Reed’s statement:
- Opportunities to better co-ordinate evidence with others to better understand where action is needed or can be better targeted/focused
- Clarifying delivery and accountability in the plan so it is easier to see what and who is contributing to a goal or target
- A clear process for prioritisation, which could help with assessing competing demands
- Stronger engagement and collaboration with stakeholders
- Simplified, sustained funding and tackling skills and capacity issues
The UK Government hopes to accomplish the following in revising the EIP:
- Be clear on the role of cross cutting enablers for environmental delivery across government and wider society and how actions interface as part of a system to improve the natural environment
- Highlight how protecting and enhancing our natural capital is not just for its own sake but supports wider societal outcomes including the Government’s missions for clean energy and growth
- Clarify Environment Act target delivery plans and update their corresponding interim targets to cover the five-year period from completion of the review, in line with statutory requirements
- Clarify how the EIP will be delivered, including the role of government departments and bodies, environmental NGOs, businesses, farmers, landowners/managers, local government and the public
- Streamline and prioritise non statutory commitments to make sure that the EIP focuses on key actions that result in meaningful delivery towards environmental improvement, contributing to statutory targets and priority outcomes
To read the full statement, click here.
