These Regulations are the first commencement regulations made under the Environment Act 2021 (c. 30) (“the Act”).
Regulation 2 of these Regulations brings into force on 17th November 2021 section 22 of the Act and Schedule 1 which establish the Office for Environmental Protection (“OEP”) as a body corporate. Regulation 2 also brings into force on the same day: section 23 which defines the OEP’s principal objective when exercising its functions and provides that the OEP must prepare a strategy that sets out how it intends to exercise its functions; section 24 which sets out the process by which the OEP must publish, revise or review the strategy and how it must consult on it; and section 26 which sets out that the OEP and the Committee on Climate Change must prepare a memorandum of understanding which sets out how the OEP and the Committee intend to co-operate.
Regulation 2 also brings into force on the same day sections which define the meaning of certain terms used in Part 1 of the Act: section 44 (meaning of “natural environment”), section 45 (meaning of “environmental protection”); section 46 (meaning of “environmental law”); and section 47, which provides for the interpretation of further terms.
Source: HMSO.