MPs quiz the Environment Agency on performance and environmental regulation
MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee will quiz the Environment Agency on whether it is set up to succeed in its environmental goals.
On Wednesday 24 April, the Agency’s Chair and Chief Executive will appear in a wide-ranging evidence session likely to touch on several aspects of the Agency’s work.
Meeting details
The Environment Agency, established by the Environment Act 1995, exists to protect and improve the natural environment. Its responsibilities include overseeing industrial waste, water quality, fisheries, conservation and the treatment of contaminated land.
In its latest annual report, the Agency marked itself as failing to meet six out of 14 key performance measures. MPs are expected to ask if these measures are effective, and how the Environment Agency is performing as an environmental improvement body.
MPs are also likely to examine the Agency’s work on water quality and sewage overflows. If the sewage system risks being overwhelmed, storm and emergency overflows are set up to release excess sewage into the river system. The Environment Agency regulates this by issuing permits which allow discharges under certain conditions and monitoring water companies’ activity. But evidence from monitoring shows that permit conditions are repeatedly breached.
MPs are likely to ask how the Environment Agency plans to monitor overflows in the future and how they will take action against companies that fail to act within their permits.