Northern Ireland departments — and UK ministers making policy relating to the region — must now have due regard to a statement explaining prevention, precaution and polluter-pays principles, but the duty does not determine individual regulatory decisions.
Northern Ireland departments, and UK government ministers when making policy relating to Northern Ireland, must now have due regard to a policy statement explaining how five environmental principles should be interpreted and proportionately applied.
The statutory duty to have due regard to the Northern Ireland Environmental Principles Policy Statement (EPPS) came into force on 2 September 2026. Developed under the Environment Act 2021, the statement applies across Northern Ireland government rather than solely to policies led by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).
The five principles are:
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The principle that environmental protection should be integrated into policymaking.
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The principle of preventative action to avert environmental damage.
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The precautionary principle, so far as relating to the environment. It is intended for situations where scientific uncertainty accompanies a plausible threat of serious or irreversible environmental damage.
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The principle that environmental damage should, as a priority, be rectified at source.
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The polluter pays principle.
Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Minister Andrew Muir said the statement “places environmental considerations at the heart of policy development”.
He added that protecting and improving the environment was a responsibility across government and that environmental effects should be considered from the beginning of the policymaking process.
What does the duty require?
Northern Ireland departments and relevant UK ministers must have “due regard” to the EPPS when developing, adopting, revising or repealing policies. The requirement also applies to proposals for legislation and to policy already under development where policymaking continues after commencement.
According to the final policy statement, due regard requires conscious and timely consideration, undertaken in substance, with rigour and an open mind.
Departments should retain proportionate records capable of showing how the statement was considered and whether that consideration affected the resulting policy.
However, the duty is to have due regard to the statement rather than to apply every principle regardless of the circumstances. It does not require policymakers to select a particular option or give environmental considerations overriding weight.
The statement also allows for proportionality. The EPPS does not require action where it would provide no significant environmental benefit or would be disproportionate to that benefit, although policymakers must still consider the statement before reaching that conclusion.
Potential implications for resources and waste policy
The immediate legal change for resources and waste policy is a duty governing the policymaking process: departments must give due regard to the EPPS and should be able to evidence how they did so when policies are created or revised.
The prevention principle could reinforce existing waste-policy priorities such as waste avoidance, reuse, repair and product-life extension before measures focused on recycling or disposal.
Rectifying damage at source could similarly support greater consideration of upstream interventions, rather than transferring the environmental consequences of waste further along the supply chain.
Under the polluter pays principle, policymakers should consider whether the costs of preventing, controlling and remedying environmental damage should be borne by those responsible, rather than taxpayers or affected communities.
The EPPS discusses command-and-control standards and regulation, and market-based instruments including fines, charges or ecotaxes, licence or permit fees, caps and trading schemes. Where the original polluter cannot be identified, cannot pay or has ceased trading, it says a business levy to fund remediation or a statutory charge on land or assets may sometimes be appropriate.
These are examples for policymakers to assess rather than measures created or required by the statement itself.
The duty could therefore influence the future development or revision of producer-responsibility policy, waste-prevention and circular-economy measures, and the funding of environmental remediation. It may also be relevant to DAERA’s next steps on the draft Rethinking Our Resources strategy, whose public consultation closed on 6 May 2026.
The EPPS does not, by itself, establish a new recycling target, charge, extended producer responsibility obligation or permit condition.
Individual licences and planning decisions excluded
The duty applies to policymaking rather than individual administrative decisions.
Consequently, it does not directly govern decisions on a particular planning application, waste-management licence, funding application or regulatory-enforcement case.
The wider policies under which those decisions are made or revised may still fall within the scope of the duty.
Policies concerning taxation, central spending or the central allocation of government resources are also excluded. For UK ministers, policies concerning the armed forces, defence or national security are excluded too. An individual policy does not fall outside the duty simply because implementing it would involve departmental expenditure.
OEP says implementation will be decisive
The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) welcomed the introduction of the statement but stressed that it would need to be implemented properly and embedded across government.
The OEP’s first progress report on Northern Ireland’s Environmental Improvement Plan, published on 24 June 2026, concluded that the overall prospects of achieving its ambitions, targets and outcomes were largely off track. Speeding up action on the circular economy was one of three priority areas it identified for action.
Responding to the EPPS taking effect, OEP chair Dame Helen Ghosh said: “Effective implementation is vital for success.”
The watchdog said it would now take an active interest in implementation of the EPPS across the Executive.
The practical test will therefore be whether departments can show that the principles were considered substantively, with rigour and an open mind, rather than treated as a box-ticking exercise.
