Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU without a deal on the planned environment Bill.

The Government is committed to maintaining environmental standards after we leave the EU, and will continue to uphold international obligations through multilateral environmental agreements.

The EU Withdrawal Act 2018 will ensure all existing EU environmental law continues to operate in UK law, transferring powers from EU institutions to domestic institutions and ensuring we meet international agreement obligations.

The Government has committed to the creation of a new body to hold the Government to account on its compliance with environmental law. We will work to ensure that the new body is in place as soon as possible in a no deal scenario with the necessary powers to review and, if necessary, take enforcement action in respect of breaches of environmental law from when the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice has ended in a no deal scenario, this will be from 23:00 on 29 March 2019 onwards. This will mean that the Government will be held accountable as under existing EU law from the day we leave the EU. Any further interim measures that may be necessary under a no deal scenario before the new body is established will be brought forward in due course.