Countryside Alliance Briefing Note: Environment Bill (House of Lords, Second Reading)

The Countryside Alliance welcomes the Environment Bill and supports the Government's aims and ambitions set out in the legislation. We have limited our comments to areas which we believe are of direct interest to our members.

Nevertheless, we believe that in certain key areas the Bill could be substantially improved, and our position is set out below. We would like to see the Bill strengthened in terms of:

• The environmental principles, including the policy statement.
• Greater independence for the Office of Environmental Protection.
• Stronger enforcement powers.
• Greater powers to tackle fly-tipping and protection for landowners.
• Recognition that revoking abstraction licences without compensation could have very serious consequences for farmers.

You can read the full briefing note here.