Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 05 October 2021
I thank members of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee and the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee for their consideration of the supplementary legislative consent motion on the United Kingdom Environment Bill and for their report on the matter.
It might be helpful to recap briefly the purpose of the UK Environment Bill, which includes provisions that cover a range of environmental regimes. A number of regulatory provisions were designed from the outset to extend to areas of devolved competence in Scotland. Those provisions covered aspects of environmental regulation in areas such as water, air quality, chemicals and waste, and resources. The measures were prepared and subsequently amended in a manner that adequately respected the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament in those specific environmental areas, and the Parliament gave consent to them in November last year, after due consideration and debate on the issues at hand. However, two recent amendments to the bill fundamentally undermine the powers of the Scottish Parliament in relation to the environment—an area of policy for which it has devolved responsibility.
The first such amendment was presented during the House of Commons stages. It introduced a new due diligence regime for forest risk commodities in commercial activities. That came about in response to the findings of the global resource initiative.
Although we agree with the need to reduce the overseas impact of our consumption, the measure fundamentally pertains to devolved law, which should be developed on a devolved basis by the Scottish Government, for which it is answerable to this Parliament. That has clearly not occurred in this case.
The second amendment was passed in the House of Lords no less, and is a further example of the sustained attack that we have seen from the UK Government on the devolution settlement. In the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021, we legislated for a set of guiding principles on the environment that ministers must have regard to when making policy, including when UK ministers exercise their functions in relation to reserved matters. It is our legitimate expectation that all ministers should have regard to those principles when operating in Scotland.
The amendment must be resisted, as it seeks to disapply the Scottish environmental principles as agreed by this Parliament. UK ministers shall apply the UK environmental principles when making policy affecting Scotland in reserved areas. That is a clear departure from what was previously agreed with the UK Government in the drafting of the bill. The Scottish Government believes that the duty in the continuity act to have regard to our guiding principles on the environment should apply in all circumstances where actions impact on Scotland, whether they relate to a reserved area or not.
Despite Scottish ministers’ protestations, the UK Government has refused to accept that these matters are within devolved competence. That dismissive attitude to the powers of this Parliament has wide potential consequences for environmental policy in Scotland. It is this Parliament that is responsible for environmental policy in Scotland. The Scottish Government is responsible for ensuring that we have effective policies to achieve the high environmental standards that we seek, which is particularly pertinent given that we are being dragged out of the EU against our will.
The Government and our colleagues in the Scottish Green Party have a shared commitment to making real progress in restoring our natural environment, transforming our use of resources and addressing remaining challenges in environmental quality. We have stretching targets for woodland creation and peatland restoration, which contribute to our net zero target. There will be an ambitious new biodiversity strategy, a circular economy bill, and a significant natural environment bill, including statutory targets for nature restoration. There are also ambitious plans for land use transformation and our marine environment. This Parliament will rightly hold the Government to account for achieving those ambitions, and the people will hold us to account for the quality of our natural environment.
That is all too relevant to this debate and to the motion, because if the UK Government and Parliament continue to intrude on our Parliament’s powers in this area, it will make it harder and harder to achieve our goals and ambitions for the people of Scotland. The measures are part of a pattern, with the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 a particular concern in relation to our ability to make environmental policy in the future.
We simply cannot accept law being made in the UK Parliament in areas within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament without that being reflected in the design of provisions and without recognition of the legislative competence of this Parliament in such matters. This is an important issue that could have wide-ranging implications for environmental policy in the weeks, months and years ahead.
I move,
That the Parliament notes the supplementary legislative consent memorandum on the UK Environment Bill lodged by the Scottish Government on 9 July 2021, and the report of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee of 29 September 2021; calls on the UK Government to respect the devolved powers of the Scottish Parliament with respect to measures with an environmental purpose in Scotland; further calls on the UK Government to amend clause 119 (formerly 107) to adequately reflect the devolved purpose of these regulations, and calls on the UK Government to remove clause 20(4) — (6), as it is inappropriate for the UK Government to seek to impose its own environmental principles on UK ministers for decisions with respect to Scotland.