Green MP Caroline Lucas has warned today that crucial legislation to protect the environment may be under threat thanks to a Government initiative which openly prioritises business interests and deregulation.
The Government’s decision to include key environmental laws in its so-called 'Red Tape Challenge' (1) – an online public consultation launched to investigate the regulations which apply to business in the UK – has sparked fears that ministers are deliberately undermining green legislation.
Caroline is among those voicing serious concern that this project effectively makes all of Britain's 278 environment laws vulnerable to review, and also destabilises crucial regulations put in place to help promote greater equality.
Caroline said: "The Red Tape Challenge is an insidious attempt by this Government to undermine the very principles of environmental protection and equality that have been rightly set into law.
"This exercise isn't really about cutting 'red tape' and 'listening' to the public – it's an opportunity for the Conservative-led administration to refocus the political debate predominantly in favour of business interests and deregulation.
"The fact that the Wildlife and Countryside Act, the Clean Air Act and the Climate Change Act – not to mention the Equality Act 2010 – have all been essentially labelled as nothing more than 'red tape' is frankly astonishing."
Caroline continued: "In the early days, David Cameron sought to use green issues to detoxify the Tory brand. He posed with huskies on a glacier in Norway, announcing his intention to tackle climate change head-on.
"Yet just one year into the Coalition we can see his Government for what it really is. Cameron should be aware that any attempt by his ministers to tamper with the Climate Change Act and chip away at the laws which protect us and our environment will meet with huge public resistance."
The Green MP has raised her concerns in a number of Parliamentary Questions to the Cabinet Office.
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Notes
1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/apr/17/environment-green-laws-red-tape