The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enhancement of the environment in England (and until 2013 also Wales).
Based in Bristol, the Environment Agency is responsible for flood management, waste management, regulating land and water pollution, and conservation.
Roles and responsibilities
Purpose
The Environment Agency's stated purpose is, "to protect or enhance the environment, taken as a whole" so as to promote "the objective of achieving sustainable development" (taken from the Environment Act 1995, section 4). Protection of the environment relates to threats such as flood and pollution. The vision of the agency is of "a rich, healthy and diverse environment for present and future generations".
Scope
The Environment Agency's remit covers almost the whole of England, about 13 million hectares of land, 22,000 miles (35,000 km) of river and 3,100 miles (5,000 km) of coastline seawards to the three-mile limit which includes 2 million hectares of coastal waters. In a sharing arrangement with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), it also exercises some of its functions over parts of the catchments of the River Tweed and the Border Esk which are, for the most part, in Scotland. Similarly, in an arrangement with NRW, political and operational areas are not coterminus. NRW staff exercise responsibility for parts of the River Dee in England and EA staff exercise operational responsibility for those parts of the River Severn catchment in Wales.
Structure
The Environment Agency employs around 12,000 staff. It is organised into eight directorates that report to the chief executive.
There are two "policy and process" directorates. One deals with Flood and Coastal Risk Management and the other with Environment and Business. These are backed up by the Evidence directorate. The fourth directorate is a single Operations "delivery" unit, responsible for national services, and line management of all the regional and area staff.
The remaining directorates are central shared service groups for Finance, Legal Services, Resources and Communications.
In support of its aims, the agency acts as an operating authority, a regulatory authority and a licence authority.
Finance
The agency is funded in part from the UK government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Additional money is raised from the issuing of licences and permits such as abstraction licences, waste handler registrations, navigation rights and rod (fishing) licences.
Funding for asset management and improvement and acquisition of flood risk management assets has traditionally come from local authorities via flood defence committees. This was then effectively repaid by central government in later years as part of the Formula Spending Share. In 2005 this was simplified by making a direct transfer from Treasury to the Environment Agency in the form of flood defence grant-in-aid.
The Environment Agency's total funding in 2007–08 was £1,025 million, an increase of £23 million on 2006–07. Of that total, £629 million (61 per cent) was provided in the form of 'flood defence grant-in-aid' from government (£578 million for England and £50 million for Wales). In addition, £347 million (34 per cent) was raised through statutory charging schemes and flood defence levies; and a further £50 million (5 per cent) came from other miscellaneous sources.
In 2007–08 had an operational budget of £1.025 billion, of which £628m was grant from the agency's sponsoring government departments. Approximately half the agency's expenditure is on flood risk management, and a third is spent on environment protection (pollution control). Of the remainder, 12% goes to water resources, and 6% to other water functions including navigation and wildlife.
Overall governance
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has the lead sponsorship responsibility for the Environment Agency as a whole and is responsible for the appointment of the chairman and the Environment Agency board.
In addition the Secretary of State is responsible for overall policy on the environment and sustainable development within which the agency undertakes its work; the setting of objectives for the agency's functions and its contribution to sustainable development; the approval of its budget and payment of government grant to the agency for its activities in England and approval of its regulatory and charging regimes. Its chief executive is Sir James Bevan.
Sir Philip Dilley resigned as chairman on 11 January 2016, with Emma Howard Boyd becoming acting chair. Emma Howard Boyd took up the post of chair formally on 19 September 2016.
Powers
The Environment Agency can carry out its own prosecutions. Decisions regarding potential prosecutions are made independently by the Environment Agency and are not influenced by any government department, minister or third party. All prosecutions are supervised by the Agency's Chief Prosecutor. The Agency maintains a Register of Enforcement Actions, in which all cautions and prosecutions brought against companies by the Environment Agency are published. For the enforcement of fisheries legislation, the agency employs enforcement officers, who have the power of arrest.
History
The Environment Agency was created by the Environment Act 1995, and came into existence on 1 April 1996. It had responsibility for the whole of England and Wales but with specifically designated border arrangements with Scotland covering the catchment of the River Tweed. It took over the roles and responsibilities of the National Rivers Authority (NRA), Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution (HMIP) and the waste regulation authorities in England and Wales including the London Waste Regulation Authority (LWRA). All of the predecessor bodies were disbanded and the local authorities relinquished their waste regulatory role. At the same time, the agency took responsibility for issuing flood warnings to the public, a role previously held by the police.
In 2010 a new national headquarters for the agency was opened at Horizon House in Deanery Road, Bristol. The building, which was designed by Alec French Architects, received Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment (BREEAM) certification for its environmentally friendly construction and operation which includes the use of sustainable materials, natural ventilation and cooling, photoelectric panels and rainwater harvesting.
On 24 April 2013, Horizon House suffered a fire leading to its closure for several weeks. An investigation into the fire found it was the result of workmen accidentally igniting the environmentally friendly cavity wall insulation on the ground floor and due to the design of the upward airflow the fire spread quickly in the inside of the wall leading to substantial smoke damage throughout. The building was quickly evacuated and the fire under control in under an hour. The resulting internal document proposed additional standards for the handling of materials that offer environmental advantages but may be considered more susceptible to ignition.
On 1 April 2013, that part of the Environment Agency covering Wales was merged into Natural Resources Wales, a separate body managing the Welsh environment and natural resources.
Flood and coastal risk management
The Environment Agency is the principal flood risk management operating authority. It has the power (but not the legal obligation) to manage flood risk from designated main rivers and the sea. These functions in relation to other rivers (defined as ordinary watercourses) in England are undertaken by local authorities or internal drainage boards. The Environment Agency is also responsible for increasing public awareness of flood risk, flood forecasting and warning and has a general supervisory duty for flood risk management. As of 2008 the Environment Agency also has a strategic overview role for all flood and coastal erosion risk management. The term "Flood Risk Management" in place of "Flood Defence" recognises that managed flooding is essential to meet the requirements of a sustainable flood strategy. It is often not economically feasible or even desirable to prevent all forms of flooding in all locations, and so the Environment Agency uses its powers to reduce either the likelihood or consequences of flooding.
Activities to reduce likelihood of flooding
The Environment Agency is responsible for operating, maintaining and replacing an estimated £20 billion worth of flood risk management (FRM) installations. According to a report by consultants in 2001, these are estimated to prevent annual average damage costs of approximately £3.5 billion. The agency also invests in improving or providing new installations in areas where there remains a high risk of flooding, particularly where, because of the possible consequences, the damage risk is the highest. The Thames Barrier was completed long before the EA was created but more recent examples of major defences against coastal flooding include the Medmerry managed realignment scheme in West Sussex in 2013. Recent examples of major inland flood prevention schemes include the Jubilee River.
Activities to reduce consequences of flooding
The Environment Agency provides flood forecasting and warning systems and maintains maps of areas liable to flood, as well as preparing emergency plans and responding when an event occurs. The Environment Agency carries out an advisory function in development control – commenting on planning applications within flood risk areas, providing advice to assist planning authorities in ensuring that any development is carried out in line with the National Planning Policy Framework. The agency provides technical advice on the flood risk assessment that must be submitted with most planning applications in flood risk areas. The agency also runs public awareness campaigns to inform those at risk who may be unaware that they live in an area that is prone to flooding, as well as providing information about what the flood warning codes and symbols mean and how to respond in the event of a flood. The agency operates Floodline for England, a 24-hour telephone helpline on flooding. Floodline covers England, Wales and Scotland but not Northern Ireland, and provides information and advice including property flood-risk checks, flood warnings, and flood preparation advice.
In partnership with the Met Office it runs the Flood Forecasting Centre (FFC) which provides warnings of flooding which may affect England and Wales. Formed in 2009, the FFC is based in the Operations Centre at the Met Office headquarters in Exeter.
Environment and business
The agency is the main regulator of discharges to air, water, and land – under the provisions of a series of Acts of Parliament. It does this through the issue of formal consents to discharge or, in the case of large, complex or potentially damaging industries by means of a permit. Failure to comply with such a consent or permit or making a discharge without the benefit of a consent can lead to criminal prosecution. A magistrates' court can impose fines of up to £50,000 or 12 months imprisonment for each offence of causing or knowingly permitting pollution. If prosecuted in the Crown Court, there is no limit on the amount of the fine and sentences of up to five years imprisonment may be imposed on those responsible for the pollution or on the directors of companies causing pollution.
The agency has an important role in conservation and ecology specifically along rivers and in wetlands. More general responsibility for the countryside and natural environment in England falls to the organisation Natural England. The Environment Agency's activities support users of the rivers and wetlands, including anglers and boaters.
Climate change
The agency states that they take a "leading role in limiting and preparing for the impacts of climate change."
Air quality
The agency is a regulator for the release of air pollutants into the atmosphere from large, complex industrial processes. This will soon include emissions from some large-scale agricultural activities, but air pollutant releases from many agricultural activities will continue to be unregulated.
Major sources of air pollution, such as transport, are subject to various measures at the European, national and local level. Local authorities regulate air pollution from smaller industrial processes. The agency works with local authorities, National Highways and others to implement the UK government's air quality strategy in England as mandated in the Environment Act 1995. The Environment Agency has an Air Quality Modelling and Assessment Unit (AQMAU) that aims to ensure that air quality assessments for permit applications, enforcement and air pollution incident investigations are consistent, of a high standard and based on sound science.
Land quality
The agency is the regulatory authority for all waste management activities including the licensing of sites such as landfill, incineration and recycling facilities. It also regulates the movement of hazardous wastes such as fibrous asbestos, infectious clinical wastes and harmful chemicals. The agency issues environmental permits to waste management sites and any individuals or companies found to have caused pollution or have infringed their licence conditions can be prosecuted. In serious cases the Environment Agency has the power to revoke the environmental permits issued to sites that contravene the conditions of their permits stopping all waste handling activities.
Water quality
The agency has a duty to maintain and improve the quality of surface waters and ground-waters and, as part of the duty, it monitors the quality of rivers, lakes, the sea and groundwater on a regular basis. Much of this information is required by law under the provisions of a number of European Directives to be reported both to Parliament and to be made public. Some of these duties have been in force through predecessor agencies and as a consequence the agency maintains some long term data sets which in some cases such as the harmonised monitoring scheme exceed 30 years of consistent data collection.
Monitoring is also carried out of many discharges to the aquatic environment including sewage effluents and trade and agricultural discharges.
Water resources
The agency manages the use and conservation of water through the issue of water abstraction licences for activities such as drinking water supply, artificial irrigation and hydro-electricity generation. The agency is in charge of inland rivers, estuaries and harbours in England. Its remit also extends into Scotland in the River Tweed and River Solway catchments where special arrangements exist with SEPA to avoid duplication but retain management on a catchment basis.
Complex arrangements exist for the management of river regulation reservoirs, which are used to store winter water in the wetter parts of England to maintain levels in the summer time so that there is sufficient water to supply the drier parts of the country with drinking water.
Fishing
The Environment Agency fisheries service has a statutory duty to maintain, improve and develop migratory and freshwater fisheries as set out in the Environment Act 1995. The interpretation of this is set out in Ministerial guidance as:
To ensure the conservation and maintain the diversity of freshwater and migratory fish, and to conserve their aquatic environment;
To enhance the contribution migratory and freshwater fisheries make to the economy, particularly in remote rural areas and in areas with low levels of income; and
To enhance the social value of fishing as a widely available and healthy form of recreation.
The Environment Agency has the power under the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 to license fishing for salmon trout, freshwater fish, eels, lamprey and smelt and to set duties for the provision of fishing licences.
Fishing licence income along with a small amount of Grant in Aid (GiA) provides the funding to deliver the statutory duty to maintain, improve and develop freshwater and migratory fisheries, including the current fisheries service provided to recreational anglers.
The EA's funding principles mean that income from the sale of fishing licences is entirely ringfenced re-invested back into fisheries work.
Many of the societal and environmental outcomes the fisheries service currently deliver, and aspire to deliver on a greater scale, is through partnership working. Working with partners such as the Angling Trust, the Wild Trout Trust and the Riverfly partnership allows the EA to maximise fishing licence income through match funding to deliver against key benefits for fishing and fisheries across the country.