I disagree with the hon. Lady. I do not think there is anything relating to the EU that is stopping us from banning microplastics. We have just done it, and in doing so we have demonstrated how the UK can show leadership. That is not just happening here in the UK. We have an influence we should be proud of, and we should be rather sad that we will probably lose it as a result of this whole process.
7.15 pm
I was coming on to explain that, in accordance with that vital principle, the Environment Agency in England imposes fines on operators that are found to have caused pollution, and requires them to repair any damage and to invest in preventive measures. This year alone, six-figure fines have been imposed on two water companies: one for pumping raw sewage into a river; and another for a pollution incident that killed fish, birds and invertebrates. In addition, those companies were required to repair the damage caused and to invest to reduce the risk of breaches in the future. That not only ensures that clean-up and prevention costs are borne by the operator and not the taxpayer, but acts as a deterrent, because avoiding pollution usually costs less than removing pollutants from the environment.
Similarly, the precautionary principle aims at ensuring that environmental protection is increased through preventative decision making in the case of risk. It essentially provides that when there is a risk of causing serious or irreversible harm to the environment, there is a need to step back, stop, and take a path involving a less serious risk of harm. Importantly, that does not prevent or discourage innovation; on the contrary, it encourages it. By preventing dangerous actions and approaches, the precautionary principle creates a space for businesses and public bodies to innovate.
It is important to recognise that these principles are not simply guidance at present, as they are given legal effect in EU law. Article 11 of the TFEU states:
“Environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the definition and implementation of the Union policies and activities, in particular with a view to promoting sustainable development.”
If those principles are to have equivalence on exit day, as we have been promised, they have to be placed in domestic legislation.
Earlier this month, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs appeared before the Environmental Audit Committee, which is chaired by the hon. Member for Wakefield (Mary Creagh). The Secretary of State made the case that as court judgments in the UK have enshrined principles such as “polluter pays”, the fact that the principles are not incorporated into UK law will not mean that the enforcement mechanism no longer exists. That argument suggests that he does believe the principles should be enforceable after withdrawal from the EU, but it limits such enforceability to when those principles already exist in case law, and some existing case law has arisen only because it has been enforced by virtue of our membership of the EU. If the principles are to be enforceable in court when there is no pre-existing case law, as the Secretary of State himself appears to agree they should be, that is another argument for making sure that they are explicitly incorporated into UK law so that the courts can apply them universally after withdrawal from the EU.
Other EU countries, including France and Germany, have recognised the principles in statute and their constitutions. New clause 60 would put the UK on the same level playing field by explicitly incorporating the principles into our law, too. Indeed, I would argue that that is the only way of fulfilling the Prime Minister’s pledge that the
“same rules and laws will apply on the day after Brexit as they did before”,
thereby providing maximum certainty as we leave the EU. For that pledge to be genuinely kept, we need the environmental principles to apply in UK law in three different but closely related ways: first, in the interpretation of retained EU environmental law by the UK courts; secondly, in the challenging of environmentally damaging actions through the UK courts; and, thirdly, in the guiding of future decision making and policy making across Government and public bodies.