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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the estimated cost is to the public purse of compliance with the Aarhus Convention.

The UK Government is committed to the effective implementation of our international obligations.

The UK has been a party to the Aarhus Convention since ratification in 2005 and has long given effect to aspects of the Convention in domestic legislation. The Government has not estimated the cost of upholding its international law obligations as a Party to the Convention.

Over the past decade, the UK has been found to not be compliant with aspects of the Aarhus Convention. To ensure that the UK upholds its international law obligations, the Government is undertaking a call for evidence to gather views on the best way to bring policies concerning access to justice in line with our obligations under the Convention.

Where new policy contains provisions relevant to matters covered by the Convention on access to information, public participation in decision making and access to justice, the implications of the UK’s obligations under the Aarhus Convention are considered in the same manner as the UK’s other domestic and international legal obligations.