Ministers have refused to rule out scrapping EU regulations that protect swimmers and wildlife.

A bill to remove EU-derived laws that include 570 environmental regulations will cause serious ecological harm, charities and MPs have warned.

EU rules designed to protect rivers from agricultural pollution are set to come to an end on 1 January 2024. / A Brexit law change is set to worsen the state of Britain’s rivers as the Government ditches old EU rules designed to protect the waterways from agricultural pollution.

The Government has effectively made it cheaper for firms to pollute in Britain in what some see as another anti-green move by Rishi Sunak’s administration.

Instead of protecting the natural world, the proposed Office for Environmental Protection ‘could undermine the rule of law’, and lead to worse damage than under EU, lawyers say

Experts warn UK’s regulations now lag behind those of the EU and that Britons will be exposed to more toxic chemicals as a result.

The government is to loosen EU-derived laws on chemicals in a move experts say will increase the likelihood of toxic substances entering the environment.

Deleting national emissions ceiling regulations as part of scrapping EU laws ‘a clear example of deregulation’. / The government is ignoring its post-Brexit green watchdog over the removal of air quality regulations, in a move that has been described by experts as “a clear example of deregulation”.

Campaigners say revoking of post-Brexit protections amounts to legislative vandalism. / Hundreds of Britain’s environmental laws covering water quality, sewage pollution, clean air, habitat protections and the use of pesticides are lined up for removal from UK law under a government bill.

One of the supposed ‘benefits’ of Brexit was the ‘bonfire of Brussels red-tape‘ which was promised by libertarian Brexiteers. Two weeks into the administration of Liz Truss, the new government announced that they were planning to revoke 570 environmental laws which, in order to continue environmental protections, were rolled over from EU law after Brexit.

Reckless cuts and the impact of Brexit have left rivers dangerously polluted.

Zac Goldsmith’s claims that Brexit could help the environment have been utterly demolished this week.

Across the world, there is incomprehension at what we have done to ourselves.

The negotiations which will set our relationship with our closest neighbours for the next generation are being rushed in a reckless game of chicken.

This Communication sets out a European Green Deal for the European Union (EU) and its citizens.

Europe’s bid to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 will aim for a just, rapid shift away from high polluting industries and technologies.

The UK is threatening health and marine life on the French coast by allowing raw sewage to be dumped in the Channel and North Sea, say three Euro MPs.

The supply chain crisis has sparked a relaxation of rules on dumping waste water.

Wastewater plants in England offered waiver because of impact of lorry driver crisis.

Waste water plants have been told they may be allowed to discharge effluent that has not been properly treated due to chemical shortages caused by Brexit and the pandemic.

Ministers were accused on Tuesday of condemning another generation of children to breathing toxic air in London and other parts of Britain by setting a target to tackle it only by 2040.

79 organisations have joined together to write an open letter to the Prime Minister urging her to change the Government's trajectory on environmental deregulation, which is set to harm our people, planet and prosperity.

'It is prudent that schools begin to plan for possibility of disruption following Brexit'

An independent environment watchdog has been established to make sure Scotland is meeting the highest standards on everything from pollution to wildlife conservation.