Defra ‘weakness’ leaves it short of water quality targets

The National Audit Office (NAO) has criticised Defra for showing “weakness” in its oversight and enforcement of environmental regulations.

The NAO report into Defra’s performance concludes that the arms-length body is “behind where it needs to be” on a number of statutory targets.

The report pays particular attention to targets to improve water quality, which it claims Defra is on track to miss.

For example, in relation to the government’s target for 75% of water bodies across England to achieve good ecological status by 2027, the NAO report reveals that only 16% of water bodies have so far achieved this status, with little change since 2009.

The report concludes: “Defra is not on course to achieve the goals it set in 2018, according to its own performance indicators. […] In many areas where there are performance data, Defra is failing to make the progress necessary to achieve its 2018 goals. The new targets are broadly similar, so Defra will need to improve its performance to achieve its new statutory targets.”

The report is also critical of gaps within Defra’s reporting. The NAO found that Defra had a backlog of 63 Post-Implementation Reviews, as of March 2023, limiting its insight into how well regulation is working.

The NAO report adds: “Defra has started to strengthen its governance arrangements and develop a strategy for evaluation.

“But it does not have the information it needs on the effectiveness of regulation, and it has a backlog of regulatory Post-Implementation Reviews. These gaps limit its ability both to make evidence-based decisions about where to deploy its resources, and to understand wider impacts of its regulatory approach.

“These are serious weaknesses, and Defra must take swift and effective action and build on its recent work to address them in order to get the best value from its limited resources and give itself the best chance of achieving its objectives.”

In relation to water targets set within the Environment Act, the progress of three cannot be evaluated because of missing information. They relate to: reducing the amount of harmful metals from the UK’s rivers; reducing nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution from agriculture into the water environment; and reducing phosphorus loadings from treated wastewater.

The foruth target relating to the reduction of water used by the public is given a “Red” rating with the NAO report indicating that per capita water consumption increased by 3.7% between 2015-16 and 2020-21, despite targets to reduce consumption by 20% by 2038.

Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, said: “If the government is to achieve its ambitious environmental goals, Defra will have to be much clearer on the detailed changes to regulation required as part of its overall approach.”