An ongoing review of environmental governance has set out four main options for those who want to create an independent environmental protection agency in NI.

The review was instigated by Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir last November, amid pressure from green groups who believe that the current NI Environment Agency (NIEA) should be independent of DAERA and its minister.

As part of the review, a panel was established, led by Dr Viviane Gravey from QUB, assisted by former National Trust manager, Diane Ruddock and former MLA, John McCallister. It has been tasked with looking at approaches from elsewhere and making recommendations to Minister Muir via an interim report in spring 2025 and a final report by the summer.

Under that process, the panel has put out a call for evidence to interested individuals and organisations, which can be accessed via the DAERA website and is open to 14 March 2025.

At an online event last Thursday, the review panel set out the four options that currently exist for NIEA/a new environmental regulator in NI:

  • 1) The first is to leave structures as they are at present, with the NIEA as an executive agency within DAERA. It has its own chief executive and has operational flexibility, but all NIEA powers are carried in the name of DAERA.
  • 2) Option two is to have a new environmental regulator sitting within a department, similar to how the rivers agency exists within the Department for Infrastructure. Under this arrangement, civil servants would be directly accountable to the relevant government minister.
  • 3) The third option is to have the new organisation at arm’s length from government, operating as a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB). There are a number of NDPB’s that already exist, including the Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI). Both of these are sponsored by DAERA, with Minister Muir ultimately responsible for their conduct to the NI Assembly.
  • 4) That leaves the fourth option, which is to make a new regulator accountable directly to the NI Assembly rather than an individual minister. This is similar to how an independent environmental protection agency operates in Scotland.

    • The NIEA currently has approximately 600 staff and is responsible for environmental regulation, protection and enforcement in NI.