Committee publication · Correspondence · 19 March 2026

Letter to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs relating to her appearance in front of the committee on 10 March 2026, 18 March

Inquiry: Environmental protection policies of DEFRA

Summary

The Environmental Audit Committee writes to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs following her appearance on 10 March 2026, requesting detailed written responses to 14 specific commitments and undertakings she made during the hearing. Topics include oral statements on environmental policies, cross-government coordination on the Environment Improvement Plan, climate adaptation targets, the Office for Environment's data access, the Sustainable Farming Incentive, combined sewer overflow impacts, and water company public ownership analysis. Responses are requested by 18 April 2026.

Key findings

Secretary of State committed to reflecting on making oral statements to the House on major environmental policies and reports, including the Environment Improvement Plan and Office for Environment Progress Report; committee seeks confirmation of commitment [Q6]
Committee requests Terms of Reference for the cross-Government Environment Improvement Plan Delivery Board to understand implementation across government [Q9]
Secretary of State undertook to consider setting specific climate adaptation measures and targets for scrutiny; committee requests progress update and timeline [Q27]
Committee identifies as urgent the improvement of Office for Environment's access to Defra data, seeking details of steps and timelines [Q33]
Secretary of State agreed to supply data underpinning the £11 billion investment estimate that combined sewer overflow improvements will reduce spills by around 45%, with clarification on data sources [Q70]
Committee requests department's analysis of costs of taking water companies into public ownership and other relevant assessments [Q80-81]
Committee seeks clarification on when operator self-monitoring on environmental incidents across the water industry will end and which categories will end first [Q77]

Tone

Procedural

Topics

environmental-protectionclimate-adaptationwater-managementbiodiversitygovernance

Key actors

Emma Reynolds MP, Rt Hon Emma Reynolds, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Toby Perkins MP, Director General (Environment Group), Director General for Strategy and Water, Office for Environment, Environment Agency, Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Notable line

“It is imperative if the OEP is to carry out its work it has access to authoritative, wide-ranging and timely data. We see this as an urgent action.”

Key Quotes

“It would be very helpful to the Committee to have a response to the points raised above not later than 18 April .”
— Toby Perkins MP, Chair of Environmental Audit Committee · deadline for written responses from the Secretary of State

“Given the substantial public interest in the matters under consideration the Committee has decided to publish this letter on its website, and I anticipate that the Committee will wish to publish any response.”
— Toby Perkins MP, Chair of Environmental Audit Committee · transparency decision regarding correspondence

“We see this as an urgent action.”
— Toby Perkins MP, Chair of Environmental Audit Committee · regarding Office for Environment's access to Defra data

“We believe this could make a major contribution to policy making by identifying possible contradictory and perverse outcomes.”
— Toby Perkins MP, Chair of Environmental Audit Committee · regarding potential introduction of a CO2 calculator tool

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Source · parliament.uk record ↗