As part of its 2021/22 Annual Report, the Environment Agency (EA) said that “funding pressures” could put it at risk of failing to protect people and protect and/or improve the environment as required through its regulation.
The EA highlighted the risk of “funding pressures” preventing it from delivering statutory regulatory powers and duties across four areas of regulatory risk: future strategy, permitting, compliance and enforcement.
As part of the EA’s Annual Report, it emphasised several risks and the mitigations it believes are key.
When exploring the risk it fails to protect people or the environment, alongside funding pressures, the EA also highlighted the risks that it could fail to shape and then implement regulatory reform in response to the government’s “ambitious regulatory agenda”, fail to effectively communicate its funding position and fail to deliver its regulation to the level of quality and consistency required.
Accomplishing everything our people did over the twelve months covered by this report would have been tough enough in normal times.
More positively, in the report, the EA said it had reduced the number of “high-risk” illegal waste sites and tackled many other sites that “blight communities”.
At the end of the financial year, the EA says it achieved its target of reducing the number of high-risk illegal waste sites to 194 against the target of 200.
The EA was cautious about the results due to the transition out of the pandemic which it says has impacted reporting levels and site substantiation. The organisation continued that the true number of illegal sites is likely to be greater and it anticipate the number may increase over the coming year.
Writing in the EA’s Annual Report 2021/22, Chief Executive, Sir James Bevan, said: “Accomplishing everything our people did over the twelve months covered by this report would have been tough enough in normal times.
“Achieving them against the background of what was happening over the last year is doubly impressive. The achievements of 2021-22 are a testament to the professionalism, commitment, and can-do approach of the EA’s staff. They are not only a credit to the Environment Agency but a credit to the whole country. I pay tribute to all of them.”
