Today (17th November 2021) section 22 of the Environment Act 2021 and Schedule 1 which establish the Office for Environmental Protection (“OEP”) as a body corporate are commenced.
Commencement also brings into force today:
* section 23 which defines the OEP’s principal objective when exercising its functions and provides that the OEP must prepare a strategy that sets out how it intends to exercise its functions
* section 24 which sets out the process by which the OEP must publish, revise or review the strategy and how it must consult on it
* section 26 which sets out that the OEP and the Committee on Climate Change must prepare a memorandum of understanding which sets out how the OEP and the Committee intend to co-operate.
In addition, certain terms used in Part 1 of the Act are now in force:
* section 44 (meaning of “natural environment”)
* section 45 (meaning of “environmental protection”)
* section 46 (meaning of “environmental law”)
* section 47, which provides for the interpretation of further terms.
An interim OEP is already established.
Here is the OEP website
Here is the statement from DAERA (Northern Ireland)
Cardinal Environment Limited's Blog 