Huw Irranca-Davies MS, Deputy First Minister of Wales and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, has introduced a Bill to the Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament).
The “Introduction of the Environment (Principles, Governance and Biodiversity Targets) (Wales) Bill“, introduced on 2 June 2025, seeks to address three core challenges: combating the combined impact of climate and nature emergencies, protecting the environment from harm, and responding to changes in environmental governance structures following the UK’s departure from the EU.
The key purposes of the Bill are to:
- Establish certain environmental principles and an environmental objective. It will require the Welsh Ministers and NRW, when making policy, and certain other public authorities, when carrying out environmental assessment under the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes (Wales) Regulations 2004 (or any corresponding provision replacing those Regulations), to apply the principles, and to integrate environmental protection.
- Establish an independent environmental governance body, the Office of Environmental Governance Wales (“the OEGW”) to provide strategic oversight of requirements on public authorities to: comply with environmental law; make effective environmental law; implement / apply environmental law effectively; and to hold those public authorities to account, in a similar way to the Office for Environmental Protection established by the Environment Act 2021.
- Amend the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 to establish a biodiversity target setting framework aimed at halting and reversing the decline in biodiversity in Wales, as well as imposing a duty on the Welsh Ministers to promote awareness in Wales of the importance of, and the threats to, biodiversity.
Huw Irranca-Davies MS, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, said:
“This Bill establishes a robust framework for environmental governance in Wales, grounded in internationally recognised environmental principles. These principles are the principle of prevention, the precautionary principle, rectification at source, and the polluter pays principle.
“The Welsh Ministers and NRW will be required to apply these principles when making policy which affects the environment. This is further supported by a duty to integrate environmental protection into the making of such policies.
“To improve the cohesion of this new approach across the public sector, certain public authorities who are undertaking strategic environmental assessment will also be subject to a duty to apply the principles and integrate environmental protection.
“By establishing these principles into Welsh law, environmental protection is embedded across all areas of policy-making and decisions subject to strategic environmental assessment.
“The establishment of the Office of Environmental Governance Wales, (“the OEGW”) is a key component of the Bill is This statutory body will provide strategic oversight of environmental law, including addressing any non-compliance by certain public authorities.
“It will also ensure environmental law is effective and fit for purpose by monitoring, reporting, and enforcing environmental law compliance. Enforcement will be escalatory, reflecting the need to work collaboratively with public authorities to reduce environmental harm.”
