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ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Water Framework Directive
The Minister for the Environment (Mr. Elliot Morley): The Government is today laying regulations 1 before Parliament which transpose the Water Framework Directive in England and Wales. Defra is also publishing on the Defra web-site a final Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) 2 as well as a summary of the views of those who commented on the most recent consultation on the Directive, and a Government response to their comments 3 .
The regulations provide the framework for delivery of the Directive's demanding environmental objectives. The quality of rivers, lakes, estuaries, coastal waters and groundwaters must be protected and enhanced by 2015. In addition, wetlands depending on groundwater must be safeguarded and water related requirements of other Community legislation taken into account.
All this action must be integrated into packages of measures and plans based on river basins, which must be drawn up with full public participation.
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The regulations comprise one set covering England and Wales (which have already been approved by the National Assembly for Wales) and a further set covering the Northumbria river basin district which crosses slightly over the England/Scotland border.
- 1 The Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) (England and Wales) Regulations 2003 and
The Water Environment (Water Framework Directive (Northumbria River Basin District) Regulations 2003 can be found at http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/si/dsis2003.htm and a transposition note can be found at http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/ria/default.htm
Maps showing the district boundaries for each set of Regulations can be found at http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/water/wfd/index.htm
2 The Regulatory Impact Assessment can be found at http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/ria/default.htm
3 Summary of third Framework Directive consultation paper responses and Government response/commentary on regulations can be found at http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/water/wfd/index.htm
The Water Framework Directive is of exceptional importance in setting the objectives for our policies towards the water environment for years to come. The Government is fully committed to these objectives. Transposition of the Directive through these regulations is a significant stage in its implementation. But it is important to recognise that it is only one step along the road. Full implementation will depend on a wide range of further decisions and actions to be taken over the coming years. The transposition regulations should be seen as enabling and requiring these further steps to take place. But they are by no means all that is needed to put the directive into practice. Key issues, as currently envisaged, on which further decisions and action will be needed, in order to achieve this, are summarised in the annex.
The overall effect of the regulations is that in England, the Secretary of State has ultimate responsibility for the Directive's implementation; this responsibility includes:
an explicit role in approving environmental objectives, programmes of measures and river basin management plans;
the power to issue guidance to the Agency and other relevant bodies, to which they are bound to have regard.
The Environment Agency has responsibility to:
Characterise river basin districts;
Identify bodies of water used for the abstraction of drinking water;
Prepare, review and keep up to date a register of protected areas for each river basin district;
Establish programmes to monitor water status, so as to establish an overview of water status within each river basin district;
Prepare and submit to the 'appropriate authority' (i.e. Secretary of State and/or National Assembly for Wales) environmental objectives for each body of water and programmes of measures;
Prepare and submit to the appropriate authority a river basin management plan for each district (including consultation, publicity and taking account of views) and supplementary plans.
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The Government has greatly appreciated the input made through the comments of those who have responded to consultation. The Government is setting out its response to them today on the Defra website. A very wide range of comments were received and a wide range of changes have been made to the draft regulations published in August this year. These include revisions to provisions dealing with programmes of measures, river basin management plans, public participation and publication of information.
The regulations set the framework for further implementation action by both the Government and the Environment Agency, as competent authority for the Directive. There is much more action to come. The regulations achieve transposition; but the Government will be building on the regulations by bringing forward a range of proposals dealing with such issues as controls on diffuse pollution, River Basin Management Plan guidance and the development of a Water Framework Directive communications strategy.
Discussions continue in Brussels on linked proposals for new Directives on groundwater and priority substances, building on Water Framework Directive requirements. Further work is underway at Community level to develop guidance packages to support implementation of the Directive. The UK will continue actively to support such work, including through its pilot river basin scheme based on the river Ribble in the North-West. The regulations need to be seen therefore in the context of this further future action.
The EA, as competent authority in England and Wales, will consult in 2004 on a public participation strategy. This will in turn inform the formal mechanisms that will ensure full and proper participation of wider society at the river basin level. It is not just the Government that must ensure that all are aware of and fully engaged in this process—there is also an important role for all agencies and organisations that wish to see a better quality water environment. To this end Defra and the EA are already developing, in close consultation with stakeholders, a WFD communication strategy for England to raise awareness of both the WFD and water quality issues.
The benefits and opportunities the Directive will provide—economic and social regeneration, biodiversity, integration of land-use and sectoral planning, flood management, fisheries/marine, health and amenity—must be explained and seized upon. For its own part the Government has instituted much of this integration within its own structures already, building on the principles outlined in its 2002 statement of priorities for water policy, "Directing the Flow". This will continue, as will the focus on delivery at the regional and sub-regional level.
Meeting the good ecological and chemical status requirements in the directive will be a challenge. A key analysis of impacts of human activity on water bodies must be completed by December 2004. Diffuse pollution from agricultural and urban sources will need to be tackled as a priority to meet the Directive's objectives, as well as further reductions in point source discharges. The costs of the measures required to meet "good status" will need to be apportioned to water users and
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other sectors in a transparent and rational way. A robust economic analysis is a core requirement of this Directive and will ensure that the benefits of the measures employed justify the costs involved. (Defra will assess the scope for updating the final RIA from 2005). Costs must, as far as possible, adhere to the polluter pays principle. Defra is leading this analysis in England, in conjunction with Ofwat and the Environment Agency. The results will underpin the identification of the most effective suite of measures be they regulatory, fiscal, incentive or voluntary. Each of these measures will be formulated with the full engagement of the wider public both within the auspices of the WFD stakeholder forum for England and at the regional and local level through the active
Helping to carry forward the directive with the wider water agenda
Alongside action to carry forward implementation of the requirements of the Directive through these regulations, the Government will actively be pursuing linked actions, consistent with the overall policy objectives of "Directing the Flow" and the aims and spirit of the Directive.
These will include: work to carry forward and implement the provisions of the Water Act 2003 that will
- further the sustainable use of water resources;
promote water conservation; including a requirement for mandatory water company drought plans which up until now have been voluntary.
completion of the current Periodic Review of water prices and related environmental investment programmes to protect and enhance surface and groundwater water quality, including the water needs of important wetlands and other important biodiversity sites;
work within the context of the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) on hazardous substances and nutrients and work to help deliver the Government's vision for the marine environment as set out in "Seas of Change";
work on establishing effective integration and linkages between river basin management plans (including supplementary plans) and other plans with a bearing on them, including abstraction plans, flood management plans and land use plans.
(Note: all key decisions will be subject to prior consultation with stakeholders)
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