Thank you for your email about the Environment Bill.
As the MP for a rural constituency, I share your concern about protecting our natural environment and am pleased that the Government is committed to being the UK's greenest ever. I recently served as a Member of the Public Bill Committee for the Agriculture Bill, which was tasked with scrutinising the draft legislation line by line and holding evidence sessions on the proposals.
Draft clauses to be included in the Environment Bill on environmental principles and governance have now been published. These draft clauses will be central to the new Environment Bill and will place environmental ambition and accountability at the heart of government. I am encouraged that these clauses are only part of a broader Bill, which will include legislative measures to take direct action to address the biggest environmental priorities of our age: air quality, nature recovery, waste and resource efficiency, and water resource management. More detail on all policy areas will be published in due course.
The draft clauses set out how a new system of green governance will be created, establishing an Office for Environmental Protection, to ensure we succeed in leaving the environment in a better condition than we found it. The draft clauses also place our 25 Year Environment Plan on a statutory footing, and introduce a set of environmental principles that will be used to guide future government policy making.
I know how important these pieces of legislation are to many of my constituents and I will continue to play an active role as both the Agriculture Bill and Environment Bill progress through the House of Commons.
Thank you also for drawing my attention to the RSPB's Let Nature Sing event. I was pleased to attend the event on Wednesday 24 April and hear the Let Nature Sing single.
