The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs has today published a detailed plan setting out the Government’s timetable and deadlines for improving environmental regulations and removing unnecessary red tape.
The full package of Environment theme proposals announced on 19 March 2012 include:
- of 255 regulations, 132 would be improved, mainly through simplification or consolidation;
- 70 would be kept as they are, to uphold important environmental protections;
- and 53 obsolete regulations would be removed.
Defra also announced a new drive to introduce smarter implementation on the ground, committing to work with business and environment organisations to identify the scope for significant rationalisation of legislation, guidance and data sets. A total of 116 separate proposals were put forward.
Defra committed to developing the detailed implementation plan published today which establishes a clear set of deadlines for implementation with intermediate milestones. The target dates include:
i. Within 1 year of announcement (Common Commencement Date (CCD) April 2013): Proposals that are easy to implement, provide significant benefits to business/citizens and are probably not controversial.
ii. Between 1-2 years of announcement (CCD April 2014): Proposals that will require more preparation, perhaps significant consultation and may be controversial but still provide meaningful benefits to business/citizens.
iii. More than 2 years from announcement (normally by CCD April 2015): Measures that may require significant resources or time to implement (such as changes to primary legislation) or which are likely to provide only limited benefits to business/citizens.
Main characteristics of the plan
The implementation plan records proposals which relate to both legislative (60%) and delivery reform (40%). Of reforms to delivery arrangements 55% will be taken forward by Defra‟s regulators. At the date of publishing, over 10% of the 116 proposals have already been implemented, with forecast savings to business of over £140 million per year.
Defra said that under the plan by October 2013 66% of its commitments and 70% of those which have a significant impact on businesses will have been delivered and by the end of this Parliament the plan would deliver 96% of all proposals.
Click here to read the Plan in full.
ABB has launched AquaMaster+™, a digital platform for smart water network management, designed to help water utilities monitor, analyze and manage their water networks, preventing pipeline water losses and optimizing operations.
Craig Nienaber, Business Development Manager for Safe Access Solutions (SAS) at HUBER Technology, explores why the company is seeing a growing level of interest in its safe access solutions for critical infrastructure providers, including their application in wastewater treatment assets.
Albion Water, the first NAV (New Appointment & Variation) to have been established in1999 and now under the ownership of SDS Water Group, has appointed Andy Holland as its new Director of Business Development.
UK water companies are invited to join an upcoming webinar which will explore how the sector can take indirect potable reuse (IPR) from concept to full-scale operational reality.
Southern Water has released film and images showing what it’s like to walk inside Hampshire’s expanded Yew Hill underground reservoir for the very last time, before it gets filled with water.
Hear how Scottish Water has completed its £235 million Ayrshire Glasgow Resilience Project - customers across Greater Glasgow, Ayrshire and East Renfrewshire will now benefit from a more secure and resilient water supply.
Hear how United Utilities is accelerating its investment to reduce spills from storm overflows across the Northwest.