The UK Government has published its formal response to the Office for Environmental Protection’s (OEP) Progress in improving the natural environment 2024–25 report, acknowledging the scale of the environmental challenges while maintaining that significant policy changes introduced over the past year have strengthened the foundations for future progress.
The response follows the OEP’s January assessment, which concluded that government remained largely off track to meet many of its legally binding environmental targets, including those relating to freshwater quality. The watchdog highlighted continued pressures on rivers, lakes and coastal waters from wastewater discharges, agricultural pollution and other diffuse sources.
In its response, Defra argues that the OEP’s assessment covered a period before publication of the revised Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) in December 2025 and therefore does not reflect a range of new measures now in place. Ministers say the revised EIP provides a clearer delivery framework, supported by stronger governance, improved monitoring and a greater focus on measurable outcomes.
For the water sector, the Government points to ongoing reforms designed to improve water quality, restore rivers and strengthen regulation of the industry. It also highlights continued investment in wastewater infrastructure, catchment-based approaches to reducing pollution and closer integration between environmental and water policy as part of wider reforms to the sector.
While accepting that further progress is needed, the Government says the revised policy framework puts the country on a stronger footing to achieve its environmental ambitions and deliver sustained improvements over the coming years. The OEP is expected to continue monitoring progress through its annual assessments under the Environment Act.
In response Professor Robbie McDonald, OEP Chief Scientist, said:
“We welcome government’s response, that largely accepts our recommendations. We will take time to consider it in detail as we finalise our next progress report, which will be published in mid-January (2027).
“Our most recent progress assessment, published in January (2026), to which this is government’s formal response, was that government remains largely off track to meet its environmental targets and obligations, including legally binding biodiversity targets set under the Environment Act and the UK’s twin 30by30 commitments both for protected areas and for restoring degraded ecosystems.
“That is why what happens now matters, as government must make the choice whether or not it is going to meet those targets.”
Government also published its Annual Progress Report (APR) that provides its assessment of how it is doing in delivering the EIP and Environment Act 2021 targets from April 2025 to March 2026.
Responding to the APR Professor McDonald added:
“We recognise that Defra has made improvements to its APR, in line with the revised EIP25.
“The new approach is more systematic and comprehensive. It also brings increased transparency in some places, which is welcome and should go further. Transparency is important so that it is clear to all whether the actions being taken will suffice to meet targets, such as halting the decline of biodiversity by 2030.
“There are still some areas that can be improved, such as the actions government has broadly defined as ‘in progress’, which we will look at closely as we prepare our next independent EIP assessment. In that, we will examine what is defined as ‘in progress’, as this covers a very wide range from preparatory activities through to full roll-out of large schemes, and what this means for delivery.”
