Legal Guidance and Research / Experts / Claire Nevin
Claire Nevin#11797

Claire Nevin

Francis Taylor Building
Claire is a tenant at Francis Taylor Building.

Before her call to the Bar in 2021, Claire gained valuable experience of the intersection between environmental and human rights law in her work for the United Nations in Geneva, the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and a number of NGOs. The breadth of Claire’s previous experience with international organisations, a government department and campaign groups means she is already well-practised in considering complex and sensitive legal issues from a range of perspectives.

Claire is building a busy environmental, planning and public law practice. She has appeared as sole counsel for a Rule 6 Party in a five-day planning inquiry which encompassed issues such as designated Local Open Space, a Grade I listed heritage asset, ecology and the provision of affordable and market housing. Claire is currently instructed as sole counsel for a Rule 6 Party and junior counsel for a local authority in a number of upcoming planning inquiries. The law of chemical regulation is a topic of particular interest to Claire and one she has written about for Francis Taylor Building’s Environment Law Blog.

During pupillage Claire conducted research and drafted advices and skeleton arguments on matters including major energy projects, commons and village greens, flood defence works, sewage pollution from storm overflows, charitable exemptions from the Community Infrastructure Levy and permitted development rights in a conservation area. Claire also provided research and drafting assistance during a two-week planning inquiry on a proposal for a major solar farm in an historic parkland. 

Alongside practice at the Bar, Claire regularly contributes to policy and educational initiatives in the field of environmental law. Claire was invited to deliver a workshop on the Rights of Nature alongside environmental lawyers working in the UK and internationally, representatives from NGOs and academics. She co-authored the Environmental Justice Network Ireland, Queen's University Belfast School of Law and Lawyers for Nature’s submission to the Irish Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss. Claire supervised LLM students at the University of Essex on a project focusing on the right to a healthy environment in the UK and is a regular contributor to Chambers’ Environmental Law Blog.

Claire is an appointed member of the Attorney General’s ‘Junior’ Junior Scheme.

Practice Area

Panel

  • Contributing Author

Qualified Year

  • 2021

Experience

  • Gulf Centre for Human Rights (2020 - 2022)
  • United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva (2018 - 2019)
  • Front Line Defenders, Dublin (2017 - 2018)
  • Council of Europe, Strasbourg (2016 - 2017)

Membership

  • UK Environmental Law Association
  • The Constitutional and Administrative Law Bar Association
  • Planning and Environmental Bar Association

Qualifications

  • Advanced Diploma in Irish Environmental and Planning Law (2022)
  • Bar Course (2021)
  • Graduate Diploma in Law (2020)
  • M.A. in Human Rights and Democratisation (2015)
  • BA European Studies (2014)

Education

  • The King’s Inns, Dublin (2021-2022)
  • Inns of Court College of Advocacy, London (2020-2021)
  • City Law School, City University of London (2019-2020)
  • European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation, Venice (2014-2015)
  • Trinity College Dublin (2010-2014)

3 Contributions by Claire Nevin

Maintenance and protection of public sewers: statutory duties, street works, building over sewers and enforcement—Water Industry Act 1991 and NRSWA 1991 (England and Wales)
PRACTICE NOTES
Maintenance and protection of public sewers: statutory duties, street works, building over sewers and enforcement—Water Industry Act 1991 and NRSWA 1991 (England and Wales)
Maintenance Every sewerage undertaker is under a duty to ensure its sewers and lateral drains are cleaned and kept in good order so that its area is, and continues to be, effectively drained. Section 79 of the Environment Act 2021, which will commence on a day appointed by regulations of the Secretary of State, places an obligation on undertakers to prepare, publish and maintain a drainage and sewerage management plan. Such a plan sets out how the undertaker will manage and develop its drainage and sewerage systems so that it is, and remains, able to meet its duties under Part IV of the Water Industry Act 1991 (WIA 1991). Pending commencement, the Secretary of State has required undertakers to produce non-statutory plans in early 2023 as a planning tool for Ofwat’s 2024 Price Review covering 2025–30. Companies have been asked to assess present capacity and the actions required over 5, 10 and 25-year horizons. Undertakers cannot excuse non-compliance with WIA 1991, s 94(1) by relying on outdated infrastructure inherited at privatisation. Breach of WIA 1991, s 94(1) ousts private...
Environment
Sewerage undertakers in England and Wales: duties, powers, DWMPs, storm overflow regulation, nutrient standards, adoption of private sewers, performance obligations and sewer mapping
PRACTICE NOTES
Sewerage undertakers in England and Wales: duties, powers, DWMPs, storm overflow regulation, nutrient standards, adoption of private sewers, performance obligations and sewer mapping
A sewerage undertaker is the company named by the Secretary of State or Ofwat to act as the sewerage undertaker for the territory described in its instrument of appointment under section 11(1) of the Water Act 1989, as preserved by section 6(1) of the Water Industry Act 1991 (WIA 1991). The appointed undertaker may carry out its functions within the boundary depicted on the Sewerage Services Area Map attached to that instrument. Any dispute about the limits of an undertaker’s area is decided by Ofwat, in line with Condition A7 of the Instrument of Appointment. Within its area, the undertaker must provide sewerage services pursuant to its duty under WIA 1991, s 94. ‘Sewerage services’ covers the disposal of sewage and any other services that a sewerage undertaker is required to deliver for the purpose of fulfilling its functions. The Water Act 2014—choice of sewerage supplier Section 4 and Schedules 3 and 4 of the Water Act 2014 (WA 2014) introduced a sewerage licensing scheme in England. Section 5 and Sch 5 established a comparable scheme in Wales. These provisions came into force in England in April 2017. The aim of the legislation...
Environment
Sewers, drains and related infrastructure: statutory definitions under the Water Industry Act 1991 (England and Wales)
PRACTICE NOTES
Sewers, drains and related infrastructure: statutory definitions under the Water Industry Act 1991 (England and Wales)
Drains A ‘drain’ is a system used to carry away wastewater from a single building, or from any buildings or yards appurtenant to buildings within the same curtilage. The term also extends to its accessories, for example: manholes pumps (See the accessories definition below.) Whether something like a terrace constitutes ‘one building’ for these purposes is a matter of fact. ‘Curtilage’ means land so closely associated with a building that it forms part and parcel of it. Lateral drains A ‘lateral drain’ is the portion of a drain that runs from the curtilage of a building (or buildings or yards within the same curtilage) to the sewer with which the drain connects, or is intended to connect. Alternatively, where context makes a difference, it is the part of a drain specified in a declaration of vesting under section 102 of the Water Industry Act 1991, or in an agreement under section 104 of the WIA 1991. Sewers ‘Sewer’ includes all sewers and drains (except drains as defined in the drains section above) that are used for the drainage of buildings...
Environment
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