Written evidence submitted by the Environment Agency (JKW0016)

1. The Environment Agency is the non-departmental public body responsible within England for: regulating major industry and waste; treatment of contaminated land; water quality and resources; fisheries; inland river, estuary and harbour navigations; and conservation and ecology. We are also responsible for managing the risk of flooding from main rivers, reservoirs, estuaries and the sea.

2. The Environment Agency regulates the disposal and recovery of waste, which includes the safe movement and disposal of Japanese knotweed. The latter is a small part of our waste management work. The Environment Agency is responsible for the appropriate management of Japanese knotweed on its own estate and in its role as an operating authority including as a flood risk management authority.

3. The Environment Agency does not have any specific enforcement powers relating to Japanese knotweed. As a result of amendments by the Infrastructure Act 2015, the Environment Agency, along with other environmental authorities, has powers in Schedule 9A to Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, relating to entering into species control agreements (“SCAs”) with owners of premises and making species control orders (“SCOs”) to require the carrying out of operations to control invasive non-native species. Defra has issued a code of practice in July 2017 on species control provisions that states: “These provisions should be used primarily to remove newly arrived invasive non-native species or species that currently have a relatively restricted distribution but have the potential to become more widely spread. In general, it would not be an appropriate use of these powers or an effective use of resources to seek to apply these provisions to invasive non-native species that are already widespread.”

4. The Environment Agency published ‘The Environment Agency code of practice for the management, destruction and disposal of Japanese knotweed’ (“the code”) in May 2001. The purpose of the code was to allow developers and hauliers to comply with waste and environmental regulations pertaining to Japanese knotweed. The inappropriate disposal of soil containing Japanese knotweed rhizome had been a significant pathway for its spread. The code provided a range of options for the management and disposal of Japanese knotweed on-site, and standards for appropriate off-site disposal, if necessary.
    
5. The code was revised in 2006, becoming ‘The Japanese knotweed code of practice’, and expanded to provide better guidance on Japanese knotweed management and rhizome recognition. The code was further revised to accommodate changes in legislation in 2013. The code was replaced in 2014 with guidance on the GOV.UK website described in the following paragraphs.

6. Regulatory Position Statement 178, ‘The treatment and disposal of non-native plants’ was published in 2014, revised in 2016 and is currently awaiting further revision. RPS 178 describes the conditions under which the disposal of invasive non-native plants can be undertaken without the need for an environmental permit under the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016.

7. Guidance on Japanese knotweed management is available on GOV.UK. The webpage provides links to the two main industry codes of practice on knotweed management, written by the Invasive Non-Native Specialists Association and the Property Care Association.

December 2018