Environment (Wales) Act 2016—snapshot

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis
Produced in partnership with Dr Victoria Jenkins of Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law, Swansea University and Professor Robert Lee LLD of University of Birmingham
Practice notes

Environment (Wales) Act 2016—snapshot

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis

Produced in partnership with Dr Victoria Jenkins of Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law, Swansea University and Professor Robert Lee LLD of University of Birmingham

Practice notes
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The Welsh Government introduced the Environment (Wales) Bill (E(W) Bill) on 11 May 2015. The Environment (Wales) ACT 2016 (E(W)A 2016) received Royal Assent on 21 March 2016. E(W)A 2016 contains a certain amount of house-keeping on the environment in Wales such as re-setting statutory targets for reducing emissions and carbon budgets and clarifying the law for other environmental regulatory regimes including flood risk management and land drainage. These provisions are not covered by this Practice Note.

In this analysis, attention is primarily given to E(W)A 2016, Part 1, which contains provisions aiming to protect and ensure the goods and services generated by ecosystems and to guarantee the sustainable management of natural resources in Wales. As such and following on from the creation of an integrated agency for the environment in Wales (Natural Resources Wales—NRW) it constitutes something of a re-purposing of environmental law in Wales. This Practice Note also considers provisions in E(W)A 2016 on the management of secondary

Victoria Jenkins
Dr Victoria Jenkins

Associate Professor, Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law, Swansea University

Victoria is an Associate Professor in the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law where she has worked since 1999. Her research interests lie in environmental law, specifically legal approaches to sustainable development and the way in which land use planning, landscape and nature conservation laws seek to protect natural resources.

Victoria is also co-convenor of the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association Wales, Working Party. This group aims to bring together academics, legal practitioners, non-governmental organisations and others with an interest in environmental protection.

Victoria is particularly interested in the impact of devolution on environmental protection in Wales. She has written a report for UKELA on Wales, Brexit and Environmental Law and completed a Fellowship with the Welsh Parliament on how the sustainable management of natural resources in Wales might be used as a lens through which to explore possible approaches to UK Common Frameworks after Brexit. She has also published widely on approaches to planning and environmental law in Wales, including in the Journal of Planning Law and the Journal of Environmental Law.

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Robert Lee
Professor Robert Lee, LLD

Professor, University of Birmingham

Robert Lee has worked both in academia and legal practice. He has acted as an advisor to a number of international agencies including UNEP, UNDP, The European Parliament and the European Commission.

He sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Law and Society and is environmental editor for the Journal of Business Law. He is currently working on two large research programme, PrecisonTox, funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 programme, which concerns methodologies for chemical risk assessment and Met4Tech, funded by UKRI which explores a circular economy in technology metals.

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Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Key definition:
Environment definition
What does Environment mean?

The environment includes all or any of the following media;  air, water and land and any living organisms (including humans) or ecosystems supported by those media.

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