Defra urged to improve EU law implementation
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs needs to improve the way it implements European directives, the National Audit Office said today.
Without around 30 per cent of all legislation coming from Europe falling into Defra’s remit, its performance is highly important.
The introduction of EU law into UK law has long been a subject of contention, with business groups and political opponents often complaining that the UK ‘gold plates’ European legislation, leading to an onerous impact on the UK.
The consequences of getting it wrong can also be enormous, resulting for example in the 2002 fridge mountains. Then, problems in interpreting the regulations regarding the removal of ozone depleting substances from fridges led to the number of fridges awaiting disposal to build up and up – eventually costing £46 million to deal with.
Auditor General Sir John Bourn said today that Defra had had “mixed success” in this regard and urged the department to build on good practice with better management of process and identify key risks earlier.
It is urged to ensure that “over-implementation” of directives is not a result of efforts to provide clarity to industry.
There is praise though, with the NAO pointing out that the UK has a good record in implementing directives.
Sir John said: “European laws form a large part of Defra’s work and getting transposition wrong can be costly for government and industry and lead to environmental damage and other adverse effects.”
He added: “There is still scope for Defra to improve the overall quality, and timeliness of transposition and taking steps such as increased senior level oversight of the process and giving stakeholders as much certainty as possible will help the department to achieve better and more consistent results. “
Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Norman Baker said the report raised serious questions for Defra.
Mr Baker said: “It is worrying that there were 61 new infringements in the two years up to the end of December 2003.
“The question which needs to be asked is whether the Government are taking the environment seriously, and whether Defra has been given the clout within Whitehall to carry these measures through.”
