Hybrid | UK Environmental Law: Taking Stock and Looking To The Future

About this event

Coming into power after a period of immense change in environmental law, our new government had significant economic and climate ambitions. It was a time to both take stock of recent innovations in UK environmental law and look to the future.

In this seminar, we explored the ongoing implementation of the Environment Act 2021, as well as the diverse developments across the nations of the UK. We also considered regulatory reforms, including planning law, in response to economic, infrastructure, climate, and biodiversity challenges.

This was the third event in a highly successful series of public discussions on the major changes to UK environmental law since Brexit, bringing together academics, practitioners, government, and civil society.

Speakers and Session

Panel 1: 

Legislating for environmental governance across the UK: Chaired by Prof Eloise Scotford (UCL)

• Ruth Chambers (Green Alliance), Five years on, did we get a Green Brexit?
• Dame Glenys Stacey (Office for Environmental Protection), Taking stock and looking forward 
• Rosie Sutherland (RSPB), Diversity in governance across the nations 
• Prof Chris Hilson (University of Reading) Targets and the Environment Act 2021: From Christmas Trees to the 7 A’s  

Environmental regulation: Chaired by David Wolfe KC (Matrix Chambers) 

Panel 2: 

• Becky Shrubsole (DEFRA), Environmental regulatory reform: State of play
• Richard Broadbent (Freeths), Post-Brexit developments in the Habitats Regulations and the move to strategic solutions 
• Prof Maria Lee (UCL), Planning reform, people and place 

Key insights from the expert speakers

On 22 January 2025, UCL Laws, Green Alliance and UKELA hosted the third event in their highly successful series on UK environmental law and governance in a changing political and legal landscape. Whilst the first two events in this series – in 2019 and 2023 respectively – focused on preparing for UK environmental law post-Brexit (‘A First Response to the Environment Bill’) and the new dawn of the Environmental Act 2021 under the shadow of the proposed (now) Retained EU Law Act 2023 (‘Retained EU Law and the Environment’), this event considered the current state of UK Environmental Law in early 2025 (‘Taking Stock and Looking to the Future’).

This event took place at an important time, with initial lessons being learned about post-Brexit UK legal architectures for environmental governance, with a new UK government in power, with persisting environmental problems (some with a high public profile like water pollution from sewage overflows), and with the Office of Environmental Protection and Environmental Standards Scotland having emerged as a confident and established oversight bodies for UK environmental law and policy.

Our speakers made important contributions to the debate on post-Brexit environmental law, including:

Ruth Chambers (Green Alliance) told the audience that our new environmental governance systems have brought a heightened sense of responsibility for environmental law. They are being used and appreciated and there are encouraging signs of them prompting rethinks and sparking citizen action. Fulfilling the promise of a ‘green Brexit’ will require determined action from government and continued diligence from governance bodies, parliament and civil society.

Dame Glenys Stacey (Chair, Office for Environmental Protection) gave an overview of the OEP’s recently published 3rd annual progress report evaluating the Government’s progress against the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023. Dame Glenys explained that the Government remains largely off track to meet its environmental ambitions and outlined the OEP’s headline recommendations for getting back on track, with recommendations for substantive policy (including optimising nature-friendly farming and the contribution of protected sites for nature) and enabling policy success (regulating more effectively, mobilising investment, and harnessing support needed to achieve environmental ambition). The Government’s rapid review of the EIP will be critical in improving the current approach to effective policymaking for environmental ambition in England.

Prof Chris Hilson (University of Reading) said that taking stock of the Environment Act 2021 involves reflecting on the framework of the legislation as well as its content. Environmental targets were an important part of the Act’s post-Brexit ambition. The Act may give the impression that all our targets are to be found in it. In reality though, likening the Act to a Christmas tree, some of the Act’s target baubles or decorations are more visible and more substantial than others. And many of our important national targets are in a separate box of decorations, not on the tree at all. The governance of such targets, including issues like accountability and adaptability, is an important issue for environmental lawyers to consider looking forward.

Richard Broadbent (Freeths) talked about the multiple powers put into law to amend the Habitats Regulations by the previous Government - and yet significant amendments have not yet been made. What we have seen, however, is a shift in focus to strategic compensation (under the Energy Act 2023 for relevant offshore renewable energy projects) and more recently in a Government Working Paper published in December, a more ambitious proposal for state led assessments of projects and the strategic delivery of mitigation/compensation/and nature recovery measures using funds contributed by developers. Richard discussed the potential benefits and risks of Government overreach associated with these proposals.

Prof Maria Lee (UCL) argued that the current planning reform agenda is in danger of overlooking the enormous democratic significance of planning, and the importance of planning to people and place. Whilst the planning process becomes increasingly technocratic, the politics of planning remains – planning will continue to distribute costs and benefits, create winners and losers, and prioritise particular values and particular ways of seeing the world. If democracy in planning is to be knowingly weakened, we have to ask ourselves who will ‘do’ the politics.

What the full video on our YouTube channel or view it below 

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This event is co-convened by:

About the UCL Centre for Law and the Environment

The Centre for Law and Environment was established to provide a focal point for the UCL Faculty of Laws' outstanding expertise and academic strength in the field of the environment and the law. The main goals of the Centre are to advance research and teaching and explore the role of law in meeting contemporary environmental and energy challenges. The Centre is committed to treating domestic law (UK), regional (European Union) and international aspects of environmental law in a comprehensive and integrated manner. This approach is reflected in offerings on the LLM course and the supervision of doctoral students, as well as in the diverse range of research pursued by members of the Centre.

See the activities of the Centre