Bevan: We’re going to need a bigger stick

James Bevan, head of the Environment Agency, has proposed a new model for environmental regulation in England and Wales following the UK’s departure from the EU that involves a “bigger stick” and could cost the taxpayer less.

Speaking as part of a Westminster Forum on water regulation, Bevan said his approach was an updated version of Teddy Roosevelt’s famous aphorism: “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” He suggested future regulation needs to: “Think differently, speak softly, and carry an even bigger stick; you will go even further.”

Bevan said legislators and regulators need to create a model with higher standards that is flexible to adapt to the changing climate.

He highlighted that much of the UK’s legislation comes from the EU but is now “quite old. Some of it wasn’t designed for a country like the UK and much of it is pretty prescriptive”. He said environmental goals can be achieved with “fewer, simpler and better regulations.”

Speaking softly, Bevan explained, meant working with, rather than against, operators by collaborating, innovating and problem-solving.

He said if operators failed to comply, the agency would be “far firmer”, hence the “bigger stick”, but as a first step would engage in dialogue and assume good intent on the part of operators. Bevan called for using the carrot as default before resorting to the stick of enforcement.

Both Bevan and EA chair Emma Howard Boyd have called for higher fines for environmental breaches, which Bevan reiterated in his speech as a way to “concentrate the minds” of boardrooms and executive teams.

Much of the existing regulation does work, said Bevan, and this should be kept while changes are made to less effective parts of legislation.

“The first thing that’s worked is regulation itself. Whether we are talking air quality, water quality, greenhouse gas emissions or waste, one thing we know is that robust regulation delivers better outcomes for people and nature.”

The EA has seen its funding reduced over the past decade, which Bevan told an Environmental Audit Committee hearing had left the agency unable to regulate as it should.

Speaking at the same event, Gladys Stacey chair of the newly formed Office for Environmental Protection, said the newly formed body will not rely financial fines for enforcement action and will instead seek to leverage its authority and reputational penalties to alter behaviour.