Environment Bill — Clause 24 — Office for Environmental Protection — Independence — 20 Oct 2021 at 16:46
The majority of MPs voted not to give the new environmental regulator, the Office for Environmental Protection, complete independence.
MPs were considering the Environment Bill.[1][2]
The motion supported by a majority of MPs in this vote was:
- That this House disagrees with Lords amendment 31.
Lords amendment 31[4] began:
- Leave out Clause 24 and insert the following new Clause—
- “OEP independence
- (1) The OEP has complete discretion in the carrying out of its functions, including in—
- (a) preparing its enforcement policy,
- (b) exercising its enforcement functions, and
- (c) preparing and publishing its budget.
- (2) At the start of each period of multi-annual funding and no later than 1 April 2023, the Secretary of State must lay before Parliament, and publish, a statement setting out the multi-annual budget which they intend to provide to the OEP.
OEP means "The Office for Environmental Protection".
Clause 24 was titled: Guidance on the OEP’s enforcement policy and functions and stated:
- (1) The Secretary of State may issue guidance to the OEP on the matters listed in section 22(6) (OEP’s enforcement policy).
- (2) The OEP must have regard to the guidance in—
- (a) preparing its enforcement policy, and
- (b) exercising its enforcement functions.
- (3) The Secretary of State may revise the guidance at any time.
- (4) The Secretary of State must lay before Parliament, and publish, the guidance (and any revised guidance).
- (5) The OEP’s “enforcement functions” are its functions under sections 31 to 40.
--
- [1] Parliament's webpage on the Environment Bill, Parliament.uk
- [2] Explanatory notes to the Environment Bill, 30 January 2020, Parliament.uk
- [3] The Environment Bill as introduced to the House of Lords on 26 May 2021, Parliament.uk
- [4] Lords amendments to the Environment Bill, 14 October 2021, Parliament.uk
- [5] Explanatory notes to the Lords amendments to the Environment Bill, 14 October 2021, Parliament.uk
Party Summary
Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.
What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.
What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.
What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.
| Party | Majority (Aye) | Minority (No) | Both | Turnout |
| Con | 302 (+2 tell) | 0 | 0 | 84.0% |
| DUP | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12.5% |
| Green | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100.0% |
| Independent | 1 | 2 | 0 | 60.0% |
| Lab | 0 | 163 (+2 tell) | 0 | 82.9% |
| LDem | 0 | 10 | 0 | 83.3% |
| PC | 0 | 2 | 0 | 66.7% |
| SDLP | 0 | 1 | 0 | 50.0% |
| Total: | 304 | 179 | 0 | 82.3% |
Rebel Voters - sorted by party
MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division
Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote
| Name | Constituency | Party | Vote | |
| no rebellions | ||||