The Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Welsh Ministers have signed an Intergovernmental Protocol to protect water resources, water supply and water quality in England and Wales.
The geographic features of Great Britain mean there are considerable cross-border water flows and dependencies regarding water between England and Wales. The Protocol has been put in place in order to safeguard water resources, water supply and water quality and minimise the potential for risk in this area of the administrations’ respective responsibilities.
The purpose of the protocol is to ensure that there is no serious adverse impact on water resources, water supply or water quality in England arising from the action or inaction of Welsh Ministers or public bodies exercising functions in Wales, and in likewise in Wales arising from the action or inaction of the Secretary of State or public bodies exercising functions in England.
The Wales Act 2017 imposes a statutory duty on the Secretary of State, and the Welsh Ministers, to act in accordance with the Protocol and also introduces a duty for them “to have regard to the interests of consumers on the other side of the border” in the exercise of their functions.
The Protocol commits both administrations to undertake to work together where there is a potential for the actions of one administration to impinge on the responsibilities of another.
This includes alerting each other “as soon as practicable to relevant developments in policy or planned action” regarding water resources, water supply, and water quality which have cross border impacts, or any other situation or issue which has the potential to impact.
It is expected that the administrations will make reasonable efforts to resolve any dispute through discussion at official level, or, if necessary, between Ministers. Where a dispute arises and until it is resolved, the function that is the source of the dispute must either not be exercised or its exercise must be suspended. In the case of inaction, the function must be exercised such that the ‘serious adverse impact’ is mitigated.
The new protocol is set to come into force on April 1, 2018.
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