Newsletter of the Interim Environmental Protection Assessor (IEPAW) for Wales: Autumn 2024

It has been a busy and exciting time at the IEPAW. I was pleased to welcome two new deputies, Anna Heslop and Lynda Warren who joined us in May. They bring a wealth of experience and I’m delighted to have them on board as part of the IEPAW team. I am grateful that the need for two deputies to build capacity within the IEPAW was recognised by Welsh Ministers and that these appointments were confirmed by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, Huw Irranca-Davies MS.

Among the highlights of the last few months have been opportunities for in-person stakeholder meetings, a panel discussion with the Future Generations Commissioner, Derek Walker, appearing before the Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee and hosting the annual joint meeting with the Office for Environmental Protection and Environmental Standards Scotland in Cardiff. You can read about these events in more detail below.

The recent work by Welsh Government on the new Environmental Governance Bill is another exciting development. I must express my thanks to the team involved, who have graciously given their time to regularly update us on their progress.

We are pleased to welcome Anna Heslop and Lynda Warren to the posts of Deputy Interim Assessor. Both bring with them a wealth of experience in environmental law that is already having an impact on our work.

Lynda Warren

Lynda’s previous experience at the Countryside Council for Wales, Natural Resources Wales and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee means she is familiar with Welsh environmental management and efforts to protect the environment. As an Honorary Professor at Bangor University, she draws on her extensive experience of environmental policy to teach on coastal zone law. This, together with her post as Emeritus Professor of Environmental Law at Aberystwyth University and a long and distinguished academic career is already being brought to bear on our work around Protected Sites and Contaminated Land.

Anna Heslop

Anna has experience working at the European Commission on the application of environmental law. She has also advised UK public bodies on the implementation of environmental planning law and worked at a number of environmental NGOs. Having previously litigated on environmental law at national, international and European level she is well placed to progress our work evaluating the functioning of Welsh environmental law.

Our two new deputies round out a robust team and we are sure you will join with us in warmly welcoming them to the IEPAW.

The last few months have given us some great opportunities to meet stakeholders face to face.

Our first Stakeholder In-Person Event allowed us to explore several issues and to get valuable insights from the stakeholders who were able to join us. We are grateful to Matt Edwards and Karen Stothart from the Welsh Government Environmental Governance team who generously gave a presentation on the key features of the Environmental Governance White Paper.

Stakeholders were able to give feedback and put questions to them directly and to gain a better understanding of the issues. As part of the event discussion groups were set up to address various aspects of the Environmental Governance Bill Consultation. Feedback from these groups has no doubt been invaluable to the Environmental Governance Team as they work on development of the Bill and towards implementation.

We also had some interesting discussions on our work on Protected Sites and Water Quality. Dr Victoria Jenkins provided an update on protected areas and Rhys Gowen, a PhD student on placement with the IEPAW, gave an outline of preliminary work conducted on water quality.

Royal Welsh Show

This year’s Royal Welsh Show gave us the opportunity to host an expert panel discussion with Derek Walker, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, Gail Davies-Walsh of Afonydd Cymru and Arpana Chunilal of the Future Generations Leadership Academy. 

Deputy Assessor Anna Heslop chaired the lively discussion on the state of rivers across Wales, the complexities of maintaining water quality in rural and urban contexts and the importance of ensuring water resources are effectively managed for future generations. We are also grateful for the support of David Chadwick, MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe as well as Jane Dodds, Assembly Member for Mid and West Wales for attending the event.

For us at the IEPAW, the insights provided as well as the further discussions they sparked, are informing aspects of our current and future work.

UK Nations Environmental Governance Annual Meeting

We were pleased to be able to host the second Annual UK Nations Environmental Governance Meeting in Cardiff this summer. Joined by our partners at the Office for Environmental Protection, representing England and Northern Ireland, as well from Environmental Standards Scotland, this proved to be particularly timely with the announcement by Welsh Government of their plans for the Environmental Governance Bill which will establish a permanent body to take over the duties of the IEPAW.

OEP and ESS’s experience of the establishment of new environmental scrutiny bodies are likely to be invaluable to both Welsh Government and ourselves in managing the transition smoothly. We are grateful to both organisations for their willingness to share their experiences and insights in that regard.

A priority of the event was to discuss critical work being undertaken by each body, to compare notes and to identify further opportunities for collaboration. Water quality and biodiversity are areas where all three bodies are working intensively and where we will continue to share information.

Overall, the day demonstrated the commonality of the issues each scrutiny body is dealing with across the UK. We agreed to continue the close collaboration on key issues and to continue to meet regularly to share information and update each other on our work.

Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee

On 18th July, Nerys, Anna and Lynda gave the IEPAW’s annual update to the Committee on its progress. It was an opportunity for the Committee to hear how the interim measures have been operating over the year, what has been achieved and what challenges remain to be overcome. It also provided an opportunity to answer questions about the work of the IEPAW and how we have been addressing recommendations made in last year’s CCEIC report on our work.

Of particular interest to the committee was the progress we have made on impact monitoring, as recommended by them in their last report for 2022/23 year. As Anna explained, we are establishing internal monitoring processes to capture learning about how we operate and our impact externally.

The Report of the CCEIC is available at Report on the interim environmental protection measures 2023-24 [SENEDD.WALES]. Also available is the response from the IEPAW [SENEDD.WALES].

In the last 6 months we have received 6 new submissions. This brings our total to 38 since the start of the IEPAW.

The remaining recent submissions relate to the following concerns:

• Dumping of toxic waste
• Lack of protection for trees and woodland and a lack of enforcement under the existing legislation
• Special Protection Areas (SPAs)
• Role of planning law in the protection of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs)

As three of these submissions relate to issues we are already working on, they have been included as part of the evidence informing those reports. One submission was deemed outside of scope and we will not be considering it further.

We continue to review all submissions to date on a quarterly basis. This allows us to ensure that decisions about them are unaffected by recent policy and legislative changes. 75% of submissions to date are linked to reports currently in development.

Water quality continues to be the main area of concern raised by submitters, reflecting public interest in this issue which has been taken into consideration in bringing forward water quality in our work programme.

Our next Virtual Stakeholder Meeting will be at 11am on 15th January. It will be an opportunity for us to provide our usual quarterly update. In addition to this, and to build on the success of our in-person stakeholder event earlier this year, we plan to hold a further Stakeholder Event on 28th January 2025. If you have any topics or areas that you would like us to discuss at this event, please let us know as we are keen to make sure the programme is reflective of issues that you want to see covered.

Please email the IEPAW inbox at IEPAW@gov.uk , with any suggestions for topics that you would like to see covered at the Stakeholder Event, but also with any other feedback or information that you believe will be useful to the IEPAW as we are always keen to hear from you.

Save the Date

• 15th January 2025 – IEPAW Virtual Stakeholder Event.
• 28th January 2025 – IEPAW Stakeholder Live Event, Cardiff.

If you wish to contact the Interim Environmental Protection Assessor for Wales please email IEPAW@gov.wales

If you have concerns about the functioning of environmental laws in Wales, read further information on how to raise your concern by searching: IEPAW.

Linked in: @IEPAW