With the end of this legislative session, whilst Select Committee work carries over as normal, I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on some of what the Environmental Audit Committee has accomplished so far.
Thanks to the important contributions and tireless work of my colleagues on the Committee, the EAC staff, and the many engaged and knowledgeable stakeholders, we have scrutinised government policy across Departments on their contribution to meeting environmental targets.
The Committee has questioned Ministers from the Department for Transport on airport expansion, MHCLG on housing growth, and of course, DEFRA and DESNZ.
We have called for government to lower electricity bills, as one of the key measures to help ease and speed the green transition. I have welcomed recent government action to do exactly this, by removing policy costs from bills at the last Budget and by helping break the link between gas and electricity prices in the more recent announcement just a few weeks ago.
Earlier this year, we exposed poor tree-planting as part of some highways schemes, which has led to government committing to investigate new ways to monitor the long-term delivery of environmental projects promised as part of highways schemes.
Overall, the Committee has published ten reports, including Flood resilience in England, Governing the marine environment, Environmental sustainability and housing growth, Airport expansion and nature and climate targets, The Seventh Carbon Budget, and Addressing the risks from Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), and from the previous Parliament, The UK and the Antarctic environment and The role of natural capital in the green economy.
We also instigated a public call for evidence for new inquiry ideas for the EAC, that led to over 200 different inquiry submissions from the public and environmental stakeholders. We held a Dragon’s Den-style run-off which ultimately led to new inquiries into Air Pollution and Data centres, alongside two one-off sessions on Ancient woodlands and Peatlands.
Finally, we also initiated another new inquiry into HM Treasury and the economics of climate and nature.
There is also lots of work behind the scenes, from planning and delivering inquiries, to meeting with stakeholders, and following up on our reports and recommendations, and holding government departments to account on their responses to our recommendations.
Of course there is still much to be done. Chairing the Environmental Audit Committee is an enormous privilege and I look forward to continuing our vital work during the next legislative session.
You can read more about all the Committee’s work here: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/62/environmental-audit-committee/.
