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The UK Environment Agency (or simply Environment Agency) is a non-departmental public body of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and a sponsored public body of the National Assembly for Wales.

The Environment Agency's stated principal aims "to protect and improve the environment, and to promote sustainable development". Protecting and improving the environment relates to controlling air, water and land pollution as well as prevention and controlling of floods.

Scope of jurisdiction

The scope of the Environment Agency's jurisdiction covers the whole of England and Wales which comprises about 15,000,000 hectares of land (37,100,000 acres), 36,000 kilometres (22,400 miles) of river and 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles) of coastline seawards to the three mile limit which includes 2,000,000 hectares (4,940,000 acres) of coastal waters. In a sharing arrangement with SEPA, it also exercises its functions over part of the catchment of the River Tweed which is, for the most part, in Scotland.

Governance and organization

Overall governance is provided by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as the lead sponsor for the Environment Agency. The Secratary of State is responsible for the agency's overall policy and setting of objectives for its work related to the environment and sustainable development. For policy, objectives, and activities in Wales, the Environmental Agency is accountable to the Minister for Sustainability and Rural Development in Wales.

The Environmental Agency's has a Board of 14 members, including the Chairman and Chief Executive, who are appointed by the Secretary of State (with the exception of one member appointed by the National Assembly for Wales). The Board is responsible for the organization and day-to-day performance of the Environmental Agency. For policy, objectives, approval and activities in Wales, the Agency is accountable to the Minister for Sustainability and Rural Development in Wales. The Board meets six times a year and delegates day-to-day management to the Chief Executive and staff.

The agency's head offices are in Bristol and London, England. The Chairman, Chief Executive and legal group and other functional groups are located in the Bristol office. The Secretary of State and supporting staff are located in the London office. There are also seven regional offices throughout England as well as the offices of the offices of the Environment Agency Wales The total staff employed by the agency is about 13,000.

The agency is organised into eight directorates that report to the Chief Executive.

There are two "policy and process" directorates. One deals with Flood and Coastal Risk Management and the other with Environment and Business. These are backed up by the Evidence directorate. The fourth directorate is a single Operations "delivery" unit, responsible for national services, and line management of all the Regional and Area staff.

The remaining directorates are central shared service groups for Finance, Legal Services, Resources and Communications.

In support of its aims, the Agency acts as an operating authority, a regulatory authority and a licence authority.

Finance

The agency is funded in part from the UK government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Welsh Assembly Government. Additional money is raised from the issuing of licences and permits such as abstraction licences, waste handler registrations, navigation rights and rod (fishing) licences and from licensing data for which the Agency is owner.

The Environment Agency's total funding in 2007–08 was £1,025 million, an increase of £23 million on 2006–07. Of that total, £628 million (61 per cent) was provided in the form of 'flood defence grant-in-aid' from government (£578 million for England and £50 million for Wales). In addition, £347 million (34 per cent) was raised through statutory charging schemes and flood defence levies; and a further £50 million (5 per cent) came from other miscellaneous sources.

In 2007–08 had an operational budget of £1.025 billion, of which £628m was grant from the Agency's sponsoring Government Departments. Approximately half the Agency's expenditure is on flood risk management, and a third is spent on environment protection (pollution control). Of the remainder, 12% goes to water resources, and 6% to other water functions including navigation and wildlife.

History

The Environment Agency was created by the Environment Act 1995, and came into existence on 1 April 1996. It took over the roles and responsibilities of the National Rivers Authority (NRA), Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution (HMIP) and the waste regulation authorities in England and Wales including the London Waste Regulation Authority (LWRA). All of the predecessor bodies were disbanded and the local authorities relinquished their waste regulatory role. At the same time, the Agency took responsibility for issuing flood warnings to the public, a role previously held by the police.

Environment and business

The Agency is the main regulator of discharges to air, water, and land - under the provisions of a series of Acts of Parliament. It does this through the issue of formal consents to discharge or, in the case of large, complex or potentially damaging industries by means of a permit. Failure to comply with such a consent or permit or making a discharge without the benefit of a consent can lead to criminal prosecution. Magistrates' Court can impose fines of up to £50,000 or 12 months imprisonment for each offence of causing or knowingly permitting pollution. If prosecuted in the Crown Court, there is no limit on the amount of the fine and sentences of up to 5 years imprisonment may be imposed on those responsible for the pollution or on Directors of companies causing pollution.

The Agency has an important role in conservation and ecology specifically along rivers and in wetlands. More general responsibility for the countryside and natural environment in England falls to the organisation Natural England. The Environment Agency's activities support users of the rivers and wetlands, including anglers and boaters.

Air quality

The Agency is a regulator for the release of air pollutants into the atmosphere from large, complex industrial processes. This will soon include emissions from some large-scale agricultural activities, but air pollutant releases from many agricultural activities will continue to be unregulated.

Major sources of air pollution, such as transport, are subject to various measures at the European, national and local level. Local authorities regulate air pollution from smaller industrial processes. The Agency works with local authorities, the Highways Agency and others to implement the UK government's air quality strategy in England and Wales as mandated in the Environment Act 1995. The Environment Agency has an Air Quality Modelling and Assessment Unit (AQMAU) that aims to ensure that air quality assessments for permit applications, enforcement and air pollution incident investigations are consistent, of a high standard and based on sound science.

Land quality

The Agency is the regulatory authority for all waste management activities including the licensing of sites such as landfill, incineration and recycling facilities. It also regulates the movement of hazardous wastes such as fibrous asbestos, infectious clinical wastes and harmful chemicals. The Agency issues Environmental Permits to waste management sites and any individuals or companies found to have caused pollution or have infringed their licence conditions can be prosecuted. In serious cases the Environment Agency has the power to revoke the Environmental Permits issued to sites that contravene the conditions of their permits stopping all waste handling activities.

Water quality

The Agency has a duty to maintain and improve the quality of surface and ground waters and as part of the duty it monitors the quality of rivers, lakes, the sea and ground-water on a regular basis. Much of this information is required by law under the provisions of a number of European Directives to be reported both to Parliament and to Europe and to be made public.

Water resources

The Agency manages the use and conservation of water through the issue of water abstraction licences for activities such as drinking water supply, artificial irrigation and hydro-electricity generation. The Agency is in charge of inland rivers, estuaries and harbours in England and Wales. Its remit also extends into Scotland in the River Tweed and River Solway catchments where special arrangements exist with SEPA to avoid duplication but retain management on a catchment basis.

Complex arrangements exist for the management of river regulation reservoirs, which are used to store winter water in the wetter parts of England and Wales in order to maintain levels in the summer time so that there is sufficient water to supply the drier parts of the country with drinking water.

Fishing

The Agency is a regulator of angling and sells over a million rod licences a year. It uses the proceeds (approx £20M per annum) to maintain and improve the quality of fisheries in England and Wales by improving habitat. The Agency also regulates the commercial exploitation of shell-fish.

Navigation

The Environment Agency is the second largest navigation authority in the United Kingdom managing navigation for 634 mi (1020.32 km) of Britain's rivers. The Agency's lock-keepers maintain and operate systems of sluices, weirs and locks in order to manage water-levels for navigation, and where necessary to control flooding. Annual spending to maintain these installations, with an estimated replacement value of £700M, is around £22M per annum. The Agency uses the registration fees of some 31,000 craft on the waterways to provide some of the income. The Agency's responsibilities include the non-tidal River Thames, the Medway Navigation, River Wye and River Lugg, the Royal Military Canal and the Fens and Anglian systems. The Environment Agency is organising the Fens Waterways Link a major construction project to link rivers in the Fens and Anglian Systems for navigation. The first stage is the South Forty-Foot Drain. Functions in relation to most canals are undertaken by the British Waterways Board.

Other marine responsibilities

The Environment Agency is the harbour authority for Rye and the Conservancy Authority for the Dee Estuary. The Environment Agency also publishes information about tidal bores, these being the Trent Aegir and the Severn Bore.

Consultation and Influencing

The Agency uses its influence and provides education in order to change attitudes and behaviour towards the environment. Action, in several policy areas, is directed towards business and commerce at all levels, children in education, the general public and Government and local government. This last area is quite distinct from the Agency's statutory role to advise Government.

In local government planning processes, the Environment Agency is a statutory consultee on all planning matters from County Strategic plans down to individual planning applications. In reality only those applications judged to pose special risks to the environment are commented on in any detail. For many years the Agency has been offering strong advice against the development of land in flood-plains because of the risk of flooding. This advice had been widely ignored by many planning authorities.

Advice to Government

Until the formation of the Environment Agency, the Government took specialist advice on the management of the environment from civil servants employed in appropriate ministries. This led to considerable duplication of effort and frequent disagreements between Government and the regulatory agencies. The Environment Agency now advises Government directly about those issues within its purview.

Regional Organisation

The operational arm of the Environment Agency consists of 20 areas grouped into eight regions, seven in England and Environment Agency Wales, all of which report to the Director of Operations.

• Anglian Region—Central Area, Eastern Area and Northern Area
• Midlands Region—East Area, Central Area, and West Area
• North East Region—Northeast Area and Yorkshire Area
• North West Region—North Area and South Area
• South West Region—Devon & Cornwall Area and Wessex Area
• Southern Region—Kent & East Sussex Area and Solent & South Downs Area
• Thames Region—Northeast Area, Southeast Area and West Area
• Environment Agency Wales—Northern Area, Southeast Area and Southwest Area

References

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External links

• Environment Agency
• Scottish Environment Protection Agency
• NetRegs
• Environment agency warns government over climate change damage.
• Map of waterways in Great Britain showing the responsible navigation authorities

See also

• UK Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling Liaison Committee
• UK Dispersion Modelling Bureau