Thousands of you joined together to stand up for the natural world that we care so passionately about. But sadly, despite the best efforts of campaigners, the Bill has now become law – meaning that there is no guarantee of the long-term safety of a raft of legislation protecting our environment.

As the Bill neared the end of its passage through Parliament, peers in the House of Lords repeatedly tried to push for amendments that would ensure environmental standards could not be weakened, and that any changes to laws would undergo proper scrutiny. When these amendments were tabled, we called on you again to ask your MPs to back these amendments. More than 500 of our supporters leapt into action to answer our rallying call – thank you.

Disappointingly, the amendments were rejected when the Bill returned to the Commons. Campaigners did secure one significant victory though – the axing of the imminent ‘sunset clause’ from the Bill - which would have resulted in the catastrophic removal of all EU -derived environmental laws by the end of this year. 

This ‘sunset’ deadline has now been extended to June 2026, and under the new Act, Ministers within the current or any future Government will have the power to retain, amend or revoke EU-derived environmental legislation without Parliamentary or public scrutiny.

Throughout this campaign, the Government have repeatedly reassured us that environmental laws in the UK will “never be downgraded”. Although the Retained EU Law Bill has now made it onto the UK statute books, the #DefendNature campaign is far from over. Our job now is to hold the Government to account at every turn and ensure promises are kept. 

Stay up to date via our dedicated campaign webpage: www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/defend-nature