NI misses deadline for Environmental Improvement Plan

Northern Ireland missed the deadline to publish its first Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP), prompting criticism from conservationists.

Publication of the plan is a statutory duty under the UK Environment Act.

Stormont's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) said officials were "currently working through the decision-making process to determine what action is possible".

It had proposed adopting its environment strategy as its first EIP.

That was because the strategy was signed off by a minister prior to the collapse of devolution last year.

The strategy was subject to public consultation between November 2021 and January 2022.

The Office For Environmental Protection (OEP) said that it was "adequate and appropriate" as an EIP, with some improvements required.

The conservation charity, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds NI, said it believes Daera can and should have published the document as an EIP.

The charity's head of policy and advocacy, John Martin, said the failure "undermined confidence" and delayed "the transformative change" needed in Northern Ireland.

"This missed deadline can only be seen as an abject failure to reflect the reality of the nature and climate emergency we are in.

"It is essential that our politicians and government departments act now, matching the severity of the issue with transformative action. We do not have time to waste.

"The EIP must be published as a matter of urgency."

The chief regulatory officer for the OEP said the watchdog was aware of "the wider context and difficulties" and was working with Daera.

"We are very disappointed that the deadline for an Environmental Improvement Plan to be in place for Northern Ireland has been missed," said Helen Venn.

"The EIP is an important next step in a new approach to protecting and improving the environment, and should set out clearly what is to be achieved and how.

"While we understand the wider context and difficulties in finalising the plan, we are in ongoing talks with Daera to understand what the timeline is for the EIP to be in place.

"From the outset we have stressed the importance of keeping any delay to a minimum and the time used to ensure the EIP is the best it can be."

In a statement, Daera said officials are "very conscious of the deadline for publication" of a new EIP and are "currently working through the decision-making process to determine what action is possible in the absence of ministers and an executive".

"This process is underpinned and informed by the guidance on decision making published by the secretary of state, including the primary principle that departments must live within the budgets allocated to them," the statement added.

"Regardless of the outcome of that decision-making process, officials across the department are committed to protecting and restoring our natural environment and are working extremely hard, within the resources available to them, to take forward a significant programme of work for that purpose."

Daera said this work includes developing proposals for consultation "that will help set Northern Ireland's first ever carbon budget", advancing "as far as possible in the absence of ministers" a new clean air strategy to tackle air pollution, consulting on proposals to reduce ammonia emissions and developing a nature recovery strategy for consultation later this year.

"The department has actually increased, not decreased, funding for the Strategic Strand of the Environment Fund this year to support the work of nature conservation bodies such as RSPB, recognising the valuable role they and others play in helping us protect the environment," it added.

Northern Ireland has been without at functioning devolved government since February 2022 because of a boycott of power sharing by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

The DUP has said it will not return to government at Stormont until its concerns over post-Brexit trade arrangements between Britain and Northern Ireland have been resolved.