Consultation on Draft Environmental Principles CONSULTATION END DATE

Summary
The Department of Agriculture, Environment & Rural Affairs (DAERA) is seeking views on a Draft Environmental Principles Policy Statement for Northern Ireland.
We encourage participation from all interested parties. The primary method for responses is online via Citizen Space.

This consultation seeks views and comments on a Draft Environmental Principles Policy Statement for Northern Ireland. Under Schedule 2 to the Environment Act 2021, DAERA has a statutory duty to prepare and publish a policy statement, which is defined in the Act as, “…a statement explaining how the environmental principles should be interpreted and proportionately applied: (a) by Northern Ireland departments when making policy; and (b) by Ministers of the Crown when making policy so far as relating to Northern Ireland”.

The ‘environmental principles’ are:

the principle that environmental protection should be integrated into the making of policies;
the principle of preventative action to avert environmental damage;
the precautionary principle, so far as relating to the environment;
the principle that environmental damage should as a priority be rectified at source; and
the polluter pays principle.

Under EU membership these 5 principles were already ‘built-in’ to the development of policy and legislation as they are fundamental principles of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. Having left the EU, in order to retain the application of the principles to policy making, it is necessary to embed them in domestic law.