Environment Agency; 1996-

Corporate body

Environment Agency; 1996-

1996-

Environment Agency is a an Executive Non-departmental Public Body responsible to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It has responsibility for pollution prevention and control in England and Wales, and for the management and use of water resources, including flood defences, fisheries and navigation, in order to promote sustainable development. Established in 1996 under the Environment Act, 1995, it assumed responsibility for the functions of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution (HMIP) and the National Rivers Authority (NRA). The Agency also took on a small number of units from the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions dealing with aspects of waste regulation and contaminated land, as well as the waste regulatory functions of 83 local authorities and the issuing of flood warnings, which had previously been carried out by the police. The Agency is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the National Assembly for Wales.
It exercises similar powers and responsibilities to the internal drainage boards, but also has a supervisory rôle over the affairs of internal drainage boards and is responsible for main rivers and costal defences even within drainage board districts.

GB/153/NM/7983

Catalogued

Minimal

Created on: 13/07/2012 by Droab