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Court of Appeal: water body-specific programmes of measures required at programming stage under WFD/WFDR 2017; Humber RBMP quashed; EU law guides interpretation (England and Wales)

Published on: 06 May 2025

Published by a LexisNexis Environment expert
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Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs v R (on the application of Pickering Fishery Association by Martin Smith) and another (Office for Environmental Protection, intervening) [2025] EWCA Civ 378

What are the practical implications of this case?

The ruling underlines the continuing significance of EU law when construing directives embedded within the law of England and Wales. The court made plain that the WFD’s aims and principles must steer the reading and application of the WFDR 2017, SI 2017/407, and it too drew on EU decisions on interpretation. The Court of Appeal dismissed SSEFRA’s contention that the WFDR 2017, SI 2017/407 should be read so as to harmonise it with other domestic measures, including the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (EPR 2016), 2016/1154 and the Water Industry Act 1991 (WIA 2019). Those domestic schemes do not capture every action required to fulfil environmental obligations and impose only tighter, limited requirements. The Court of Appeal likewise rejected the argument that the first‑instance construction ought to be set aside due to administrative impracticability. Such a point can be entertained only where there is some ambiguity in the legislation, which was absent in this matter...

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