Central

UK Central Government, in close cooperation with the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, is responsible for:

• UK environmental legislation and policy, including:
• the natural environment, biodiversity, plants and animals
• sustainable development and the green economy
• food, farming and fisheries
• animal health and welfare
• environmental protection and pollution control
• rural communities and issues
• leading negotiations in the EU (previously) and internationally (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)).

The environment is a near-fully devolved area under the respective settlements (as well as through designations of responsibility for implementing European law in the European Communities Act). The UK thus has four territorial competent authorities (TCAs), for example, with regard to the implementation of EU GMO regulations. It is as yet impossible to say to what extent EU law will apply in the UK after it leaves the EU.

Regional

Scotland has had legislative and executive powers since devolution. The areas covered are broadly similar, but nature conservation law is different from the rest of the UK. The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 is more ambitious than the parallel UK legislation. Regulation is mainly in the hands of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), a non-departmental public body accountable to the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government has devolved powers over statutory land-use policy and shares authority over transport policy with the UK. It has responsibility for funding and overseeing Scottish local government services. It is also responsible for regulating most public sector activities relating to climate change within its boundaries, even where certain governmental powers are technically exercised either at UK or (until the end of the transitional period) at EU level.[1]

The Welsh Parliament is responsible for:

• legislation in the field of environmental protection, including pollution, nuisances and hazardous substances
• the prevention, reduction, collection, management, treatment and disposal of waste
• land drainage and land improvement
• countryside and open spaces
• nature conservation and sites of special scientific interest
• protection of natural habitats, coast and marine environment, including seabed
• biodiversity
• genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
• smallholdings and allotments
• common land
• town and village greens
• burial and cremation, except coroners' functions.
• any other environmental regulations except for: product standards, safety and liability regarding environmental management systems. 

The Environment Agency (sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) operates in England, and Natural Resources Wales (the largest Welsh Government Sponsored Body) operates in Wales.


There is no independent regulator in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Environment Agency is an executive agency of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.

Local

England:

Local authorities regulate on a range of environmental matters including:

• local authority air pollution control
• statutory nuisances, including noise  and smells
• contaminated land
• land-use planning and tree preservation orders.

Scotland:
Local authorities are principal regulators on matters of:

• contaminated land
• flood management
• statutory nuisance, local air quality
• environmental health. 

These responsibilities are reflected in Single Outcome Agreements with the Scottish Government.

Responsible ministries/bodies

UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

Devolved governments of the United Kingdom

Sources

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

Devolved government websites:

Scotland: https://www.parliament.scot/

 Wales: https://senedd.wales/en/Pages/Home.aspx

 Northern Ireland: https://www.northernireland.gov.uk/

[1] Tony Jackson and William Lynch, 'Public Sector Responses to Climate Change: Evaluating the Role of Scottish Local Government in Implementing the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009', Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance Issue 8/9: May-November 2011. http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/ojs/index.php/cjlg.