The UK internal market after Brexit: ensuring a ‘race to the top’ for the environment?

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Leaving the EU means the governments of the UK have new freedoms to set standards in areas which have been subject to European rules, including the environment. Such freedom could enable the UK to meet its goal of delivering global leadership on the environment and improve standards (as several governments in the UK have expressed their intention to do) but does not prevent a move toward deregulation or the lowering of standards in pursuits of other policy goals.

The UK government introduced the UK Internal Market Bill to manage trade between the four countries of the UK from the end of transition which has sparked controversy for a number of reasons. The bill has sparked controversy for a number of reasons, including concerns from the devolved governments that the proposals will infringe on existing devolution settlements and threaten to stall - or even undermine - their development of ambitious standards and regulation.

How can the integrity of the UK internal market be balanced with the governments’ environmental objectives? What would a regime that promotes a race to the top look like? How would that be reconciled with the UK government’s ambitions to do trade deals around the world?

To discuss the role of the environment in the internal market, we were joined by:

• Martin Harper, Director of Global Conservation at the RSPB
• Dr Viviane Gravey, Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast
• Dr Emily Lydgate, Senior Lecturer in environmental law at the University of Sussex
• Gail Soutar, Chief Adviser on EU Exit and International Trade at the National Farmers' Union

The event as chaired by Jill Rutter, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government.

This event was kindly supported by Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)

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