U.K. Post-Brexit Environment Plan Lacks Bite, Autonomy, Groups Say

Plans for a post-Brexit environment oversight body fail to provide the watchdog with sufficient independence or enforcement powers, businesses and environmental lawyers said at a Feb. 6 parliamentary hearing.

The government’s draft bill would establish the Office for Environment Protection (OEP), giving it oversight authority, but it lacks legally binding targets for the environment and excludes climate change from its enforcement powers, witnesses told a cross-party group of lawmakers at a session for environmental groups and academics.

The U.K. committed to creating a regulator to oversee the environment under its separation agreement with the European Union, which Prime ...