Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Environment definition

What does Environment mean? In legal practice, environment refers to the natural media and the living systems potentially affected by a project, operation or emission. UK environmental legislation commonly defines it as including air, water and land, and any living organisms (including humans) and ecosystems supported by those media. Similar formulations are used across England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and in Irish environmental legislation; exact wording varies by statute and context, but usage is broadly consistent. Where a regime provides a definition, courts apply that text; where it does not, the term carries its ordinary meaning. The concept sets the scope of regulatory...

Environment (Wales) Act 2016: SMNR framework, NRW powers, biodiversity duties, NRP/area statements, climate targets, waste separation and incineration bans, marine licensing, fisheries, flood and coastal erosion—practitioner overview

Published by a LexisNexis Environment expert

Practice notes

Environment (Wales) ACT 2016

The Welsh Government brought forward the Environment (Wales) Bill (E(W) Bill) on 11 May 2015. The Environment (Wales) Act 2016 (E(W)A 2016) obtained Royal Assent on 21 March 2016. E(W)A 2016 includes a degree of tidying of environmental matters in Wales, revising statutory targets for cutting emissions and carbon budgets, as well as clarifying the law for other environmental regulatory systems, including flood risk management and land drainage. This Practice Note does not, however, address those provisions. This analysis concentrates chiefly on E(W)A 2016, Part 1, which sets out detailed provisions intended to safeguard and to secure the goods and services produced by ecosystems, and to underpin the sustainable management of natural resources in Wales. Consequently, and building further on the establishment of a single environmental body in Wales (Natural Resources Wales—NRW), it amounted to a reframing of environmental law in Wales. This Practice Note also examines specific provisions in E(W)A 2016 on the management of secondary material resources from waste streams, and these measures will likewise be considered briefly. E(W)A 2016 commenced in part on 24 February 2017 and in full on 1 April 2017. For more information on other parts of E(W)A 2016, see...

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Dr Victoria Jenkins

Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law, Swansea University

Victoria is an Associate Professor in the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law where she has worked since 1999. Her research interests lie in environmental law, specifically legal approaches to sustainable development and the way in which land use planning, landscape and nature conservation laws seek to protect natural resources.Victoria is also co-convenor of the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association Wales, Working Party. This group aims to bring together academics, legal practitioners, non-governmental organisations and others with an interest in environmental protection.Victoria is particularly interested in the impact of devolution on environmental protection in Wales. She has written a report for UKELA on Wales, Brexit and Environmental Law and completed a Fellowship with the Welsh Parliament on how the sustainable management of natural resources in Wales might be used as a lens through which to explore possible approaches to UK Common Frameworks after Brexit. She has also...

Professor Robert Lee , LLD

University of Birmingham

Robert Lee has worked both in academia and legal practice. He has acted as an advisor to a number of international agencies including UNEP, UNDP, The European Parliament and the European Commission.He sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Law and Society and is environmental editor for the Journal of Business Law. He is currently working on two large research programme, PrecisonTox, funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 programme, which concerns methodologies for chemical risk assessment and Met4Tech, funded by UKRI which explores a circular economy in technology metals....

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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