Call for Evidence: Environment and Climate Change

Overview

This call for evidence on the environment and climate change is part of the UK Government’s Review of the Balance of Competences between the UK and the European Union. The Review will provide an informed and objective analysis of what EU membership means for the UK and our national interest.

This report, led by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department of Energy and Climate Change, will examine the EU’s competence (power to act) in the areas of the environment and climate change. The report will examine the scope of the EU’s competence, how it is used and its effect on the UK.

The final report will draw principally on evidence submitted during the 12 week call for evidence period. We want to hear views from as wide a range of interested parties as possible and will be holding a series of workshops to gather evidence. We invite anyone with relevant knowledge, expertise or experience to respond.

For more information, please download our call for evidence documents (below):

• Call for evidence: Environment and climate change (1-page factsheet)
• Legal Annex
• List of key EU environment and climate change legislation
• List of key boundary issues with other reports 

Please answer the call for evidence questions using the online survey. If you prefer, you may also send your response via email.

Feel free to contact us with any enquiries or if you would like details of events we plan to hold in relation to this report.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Why your views matter

The Balance of Competences Review stems from a commitment made in the 2010 Coalition Programme for Government. The aim of the Review is to deepen public understanding of the nature of our EU membership, and provide a constructive and serious contribution to the wider European debate about how to modernise, reform and improve the EU in the face of collective challenges.

The report will be analytical, transparent and evidence-based.  We will listen to all views and use relevant evidence to inform our analysis.  This will be scrutinised carefully and rigorously to ensure that reports are an objective and representative account of the balance of competence in that area. 

Unless you ask us not to, we intend to publish the evidence and the name of your organisation alongside the final reports. If you are writing on behalf of an organisation or individually, we will not publish your own name unless you ask for it to be included. If you ask us to keep your contribution confidential, we will try to meet that wish provided there is good reason. If we receive a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for information which you have asked us to keep confidential, we will seek to use the appropriate FOIA exemptions to withhold that information. However, it is possible that we might be ordered to release it. If we receive FOIA requests before the publication of evidence, we will be likely to seek to use section 22 FOIA to exempt material, in order to allow us to focus on collating and analysing evidence received.

What happens next

The call for evidence period is now closed and we are busy analysing your responses. We are very grateful to those who responded to our survey and/or attended our workshops.

We expect the final report to be published in December 2013. Please check back to see the final report.