Defra have launched a consultation on the consultation-stage impact assessment on the estimated impacts of Defra’s guidance and data reforms which now apply to the Environment Agency.
Questions regarding the assumptions used in developing the estimates of costs and benefits resulting from these reforms can be found in Part B of the consultation survey. Defra also welcomes suggestions from stakeholder for additional sources of evidence.
Defra would also like to invite feedback from stakeholders on their recent experience of using Defra guidance and reporting information to Defra and its agencies. These questions can be found in Part C and Part D of the consultation.
The consultation can be found https://consult.defra.gov.uk/better-regulations/defra-guidance-data-reforms/consult_view
The deadline for comments is Wednesday 10 February 2016.
What is the Smarter Guidance Project?
Under the Smarter Guidance Project, all* guidance produced by the Environment Agency is published on the gov.uk website and must follow the following principles:
- our external guidance must only provide information that customers need to comply with the law, access our services or understand their rights
- we will only provide guidance where we are uniquely placed to do so
- we will no longer provide good practice guidance, as others are able to do this
- we will not maintain a list of environmental good practice advice and we won't endorse, co-brand or provide links from GOV.UK to other websites that provide this information
- our old website is still available in the National Archives
There is some more useful information on the approach available on the Defra Smarter Guidance blog.
If you have any comments, including on the content of any recently-published Environment Agency guidance, or where you feel there are (or will be) any gaps in the guidance available to you as a result of the reforms, please respond to the consultation with your views.
*Environmental Permit guidance and The Land Contamination Technical Guidance collection currently available on the gov.uk website https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/land-contamination-technical-guidance