Environment
These regulations aim to promote sustainable development and protect the environment.
You can find all 278 regulations that relate to environment here [opens in new window].
For ease of commenting we have broken these regulations into the following seven areas:
We, like most producers, take our environmental responsibilities seriously and we remain committed to finance our share of WEEE that is generated each year in the UK. However the UK transposition of the WEEE directive has serious structural flaws. WEEE when collected and treated generates a certificate, an “evidence note” and evidence notes represent the size of the WEEE market in each year. It is therefore always 100% and each producer or their representative scheme must “own” exactly their share of 100%. If WEEE declines or grows, the market remains at 100% and every certificate must be owned in each defined annual period. This creates a “must buy” market without any price control or intervention mechanism and without a survivable right to decline to buy certificates. This fosters an environment where costs spiral upwards, where the costs producers pay continue to move further and further away from the actual costs they are required to pay and because evidence notes are financially tradable they become anonymous electronic transactions meaning there is no visibility over the audit trail for WEEE treated.
We strongly object to legislation that allows others to profit from poor transposition by enabling organisations to self appoint to collect more (often vastly more) than the share of WEEE they require and to sell evidence which they are certain must be bought, regardless of price or provenance by one or other of the producer representative schemes In a 100% market where each participant must have his share of 100% it follows that if any has more than their share then one or more others must regardless of what they do have less than their share and are forced to buy.
Producers income comes from selling new EEE to retailers, the retailers in turn comes from consumers, WEEE costs that remain in the supply chain are internalised in the prices paid by consumers and therefore consumers are paying more than they otherwise would. For many producers WEEE costs are so significant that it influences their business decisions, the UK is a less attractive investment choice.
With the WEEE recast process proceeding, we strongly ask that the new legislation eliminates the “must buy” element of the market from speculators. Producers across Europe remain publicly committed to treat 100% of all WEEE that is made available for them to collect and treat free of charge from collection points. All we ask is the freedom to be able to appoint our own choice of contractor and to be able to manage the environmental economic and social impact of our end of life productsComment Tags: producer responsibility, Re-ast, weee
Environmental Legislation is the keystone to ensure that biodiversity, landscape and the wider countryside is maintained for the foreseeable future. These pieces of legislation are the result of years of research into the damage caused by human activity and only come into place once a certain level of damage has already been done. Even considering scrapping these pieces of legislation is a major step back for conservation and open the door for further damage. These pieces of legislation may not be perfect, however, they are a vital part of the process to ensure that important resources are maintained.
To ensure this process keeps moving so that these pieces of legislation are as best as they can be a review needs to be undertaken involving the pertinent stakeholders. Red Tape may be an issue wholesale removal is not a reasonable option.
It should be withdrawn. Government should not subject careful regulation by its predecessors to such cavalier treatment. Environmental protection is vital and deserves serious review and sensible consolidation where appropriate – not wholesale removal.
No environmental legislation should be relaxed without quality confirmed resaerch results, red tape is no excuse.Comment Tags: No relaxation of environmental legislation.
The EIR should be included within the FOIA to avoid potential confussion for users of the regulations.
The Environmental Damage Regulations are a useful addtion to regulators who need to deal with contamination which is present as a result of the actions of a ‘business’ They are essential because they will catch pollution incidents which are not covered by other legislation (Part 2A). But the upshot of the removal of the above two regulations would be that Polluting processes would be unregulated, be able to pollute the environment and would not be able to be prosecuted when they do pollute. Therefore considering the removal of this legislation is short sighted and potentially detrimental to the environment and human health and therfore the economy.
We would like to see the Contaminated Land Regulations preserved. The legislation provides a clear framework and definitions of what may be considered Contaminated Land. The primary legislation also provides the framework for the consideration of land contamination under development control. Land contamination can pose risks to health and to other receptors in the wider environment. Uncertainty about land contamination has economic effects too. Part 2A has provided a mechanism to deal with land contamination where the development process has not been feasible to deal with potential harm and to bring land back into use.
Growing of biofuels are increasingly encouraged without any consideration to the impact on homes in rural areas. There appear to be no restrictions on how close, for example, willow can be planted to existing homes. No thought is given as to the height and spread of these trees, fire risk, nor to the abundance of flies and other insects that result. Other crops, e.g. sunflowers could be grown, giving added benefit to wildlife habitat and diversity and less intrusion and damage to surrounding properties. Any biofuel that grows higher than two metres should be restricted from close planting to homes , for example no nearer than 100 metres. Whilst there is ‘no right to light’, by growing a tall trees close to homes, sunlight is blocked and more fuel is needed by the homeowner to compensate. Seemingly, grants are available to ruin others lives.Comment Tags: biofuels, energy efficiency, fire risk, wildlife diversity
Calling protection of endangered species and natural sites for wild life “red tape” shows that government doesn’t care much for anything that would get in the way of constant growth and expansion. What about harmony and balance?
To suggest making protection of wildlife voluntary must surely be a joke.Comment Tags: wildlife protection
Our environment currently has too little protection. Far from scrapping regulations we should be seeking to strengthen the legislation.
We need strong and well enforced legislation to reduce the generation of waste to a minimum, increase re-use, and increase recycling. This needs to include incentives and the facilities to enable this to happen at large and small business and individual levels. Voluntary measures alone will not achieve a reduction in waste. Laws aginst littering and fly-tipping should be strengthened, not scrapped! The Uk is way behind Europe in the fields of recycling and re-use. High standards should be enforced on Waste disposal sites to prevent ground water polution etcComment Tags: litter, recycling, Waste
The Right to Roam ( 2005 Act etc) is a valuable piece of legislation that has provided the public the chance to walk freely on moors, downs, and mountains and Common Land. This is a valuable resource for health and well-being of the nation. The legislation should be kept and other Public rights of way that lead up to this open land should be safeguarded and added to the definitive maps of rights of way so that they can be seen on Ordance Survey maps etc.Comment Tags: Public Rights of Way, right to roam
This whole Red Tape Challenge is farcical. It assumes that all legislation evolved over years to protect various items of public interest is “burdensome” and “red tape”. Legislation may need review from time to time, but should be done in a more constructive way. I do not have time to plough through every list of legislation on this website to comment on it. In particular legislation concerning public access to the Countryside, Public Rights of Way, Protection of the Environment etc should generally be retained, and in many case strengthened.Comment Tags: Countryside Access, Nature Conservation, Public Rights of Way
Commenting specifically on the footpath network and existing rights of way. I think that any footpath that runs through an area that has altered making the use of the footpath antisocial or damaging to farming or business should be simply rerouted.
no-one would want strangers walking through their property, but similarly, we cannot remove passage all together.
surely to alter the course of the path is the simplest option?Comment Tags: access, footpath, right of passage
Strong Environmental legislation is essential and must be enforced. However, experience shows that the overlapping EU and UK Protected Areas confuse and infuriate the uninitiated and are thus perceived as red tape. The new Marine Protected Areas and MCZs with differing rules only compound the situation. Better explanation and more simplification would cut the complaints about red tape and make developers more sympathetic to the regulations.Comment Tags: EU MPA MCZ Protected areas simplification explanation
please ensure that all the environmental legislation we have in force at present is left unchanged . every habitat needs protectingComment Tags: wemhalcyondays@talktalk.net
I think we should keep the legilation protecting wildlife and the countryside. Also keep the climate change act but make it stronger with higher targets and actually get working on them instead of just talking about it. More needs to be done to prevent habitat destruction which is taking place for unecessary construstion etc. We need to do more on energy efficiency and reducing our eergy usage.
Environmental protection needs to be strengthened, not reduced. It is not “red tape”, but essential protection against short-term gains that leave others to clear up the mess later.Comment Tags: environment
Your description box does not allow me to specify which ‘other’ I am! – I am speaking on my own behalf as an Ecologist who has spent his career fighting for improved environmental legislation, and now do so as an elected councillor.
Margaret Thatcher once said that ‘Yes Minister’ was the best ever documentary about Government and the Civil Service.
The main problem of Red Tape lies with the Civil Servants who are given too many delegated powers and who use them to expand and justify their own jobs by wrapping all legislation in page after page of complicated sub-paragraphs and undecipherable legal speak. This allows Lawyers to make obscene amounts of money by being able to twist and over complicate what are frequently simple cases.
All laws should have a clear objective and it should be that objective which needs to be tested in a court of law.
It has taken dedicated environmental campaigners decades to introduce these excellent laws and protect not only the environment but peoples health and well-being against the uncaring ravages of ignorance, disinterest, consumerism, capitalism and greed. They must not be removed, BUT they need to be consolidated and made clear for use and the money saved by reducing the red tape which lies entirely within the Civil Service should be used for policing and controlling to make them even more effective.Comment Tags: Civil Servants, Clear laws, Ecologist
i think there should be a cull on birds of prey are they are over the balance for wildlife our garden birds are goingComment Tags: whiteheatherdoverelease
The environment is not a luxury and once we have finished trashing it, we have nowhere else to go or grow food. Whatever, one’s politics, this is very serious and we must arrest the downward drive into chaos.Comment Tags: comment
be practically involveComment Tags: to help green the environment