MPs warn post-Brexit environment plans fall ‘woefully short’

Proposals to replace the EU’s strong environmental protections after Brexit “fall woefully short”, according to a highly critical report from a cross-party committee of MPs. The environment secretary, Michael Gove, said in December that the UK’s environmental standards would be enhanced after Brexit. But the MPs’ report said the proposals “severely downgrade” the environmental principles that underpin current EU rules. It said the new Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), proposed as a replacement for the EU’s enforcement mechanisms, lacks independence from Gove’s office and has limited powers. The report from the environmental audit committee also criticises planned exclusions from environmental rules, which one expert called “absurd”.