UK environment laws under threat in ‘deregulatory free-for-all’

Campaigners say revoking of post-Brexit protections amounts to legislative vandalism

Hundreds of Britain's environmental laws covering water quality, sewage pollution, clean air, habitat protections and the use of pesticides are lined up for removal from UK law under a government bill.

Environmentalists accused Liz Truss's government of reneging on a commitment made after Brexit to halt the decline of nature by 2030. They say the revoking of 570 environmental laws that were rolled over from EU law after Brexit amounts to a deregulatory free-for-all leaving the environment unprotected.