HL Deb 08 April 2003 vol 647 cc34-6WA
The Earl of Caithness

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What powers and functions which the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs currently exercises will be transferred to the proposed regional assemblies. [HL2177]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty)

The White PaperYour Region, Your Choice [Cm 5511] sets out the functions that elected regional assemblies will have in chapter 4. The policy areas of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are addressed in paragraphs 4.49–4.53.

Rural policy

4.49 The Government's aim is to sustain and enhance the distinctive environment, economy and social fabric of the English countryside for the benefit of everyone. In order to ensure this aim is met, all major policies are assessed for their rural impact. It will be important to ensure that elected regional assemblies "rural proof" their activities fully to take the rural dimension into account.

4.50 An elected assembly will:

be responsible for delivering rural regeneration programmes (including the Market Towns Initiative);

actively engage with the regional rural affairs forum;

be the lead partner in implementing the regional elements of the England Rural Development Programme, through involvement in the regional programming groups which monitor and influence delivery by the Rural Development Service (the specific details of this role might be expanded once proposals come forward for a successor programme in 2006); and

have a responsibility to ensure that countryside, landscape, recreation and rural issues are addressed in other regional strategies, for example through regional planning guidance and regional cultural strategies.

Environment

4.51 The Government's aim is to protect and improve the environment and to integrate the environment with other policies across all levels of governance within the UK and in international fora. Effective protection of the environment requires activity on many wide-ranging fronts—for example, from acting to limit global environmental threats (such as climate change) to safeguarding individuals from the effects of poor air quality or toxic chemicals.

4.52 An elected assembly will:

make appointments to the Environment Agency's regional committee;

prepare and implement a regional strategy for biodiversity in conjunction with other relevant regional strategies;

prepare and oversee the implementation of the waste element of the regional spatial strategy;

be consulted by the Environment Agency, Countryside Agency, English Nature and other relevant public bodies on their strategies, and consult them in turn.

4.53 Defra has undertaken a major consultation on flood defence arrangements. That consultation canvasses opinions on a regional role in flood defence responsibilities, taking into account the proposed establishment of elected regional assemblies. The findings of this consultation exercise will be considered as part of the Government's ongoing process of decentralising relevant responsibilities to elected assemblies.

The Government recently concluded from the Flood and Coastal Defence Funding Review that the responsibility for flood and coastal defence funding should not be passed to the future elected regional assemblies. But the Government announced that the new approach to flood and coastal defence funding will be subject to review after three years of operation, taking account of the Government's regional agenda among other factors.