New Environmental Protection Authority announced

The Government today announced the establishment of a new standalone Environmental Protection Authority to perform environmental regulatory functions, Minister for the Environment Nick Smith said.

"New Zealand needs a strong, independent regulatory authority to ensure the protection of our environment at a national level," Dr Smith said.

"This reform is about bringing under one roof a wide range of environmental regulatory functions and providing stronger national direction to the environment roles of regional and district councils.

"These changes provide a strengthened framework of an Environment Ministry focused on policy, an Environmental Protection Authority responsible for efficient regulation and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment as an independent auditor."

The EPA will be established as a Crown Agent, with the Board accountable to the Minister for the Environment and will be responsible for the regulatory functions of:

• National consenting under the Resource Management Act 1991(RMA)


• Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996


• Ozone Protection Act (1996)


• Climate Change Response Act (2008) - legislation that covers the administration of the Emissions Trading Scheme


• Stockholm, Rotterdam, Basel, and Waigani Conventions and the Cartagena Protocol on hazardous waste


• Antarctica (Environmental Protection) Act 1994


• Exclusive Economic Zone (proposed).  

"Further work is being done by the Environment and Economic Development Ministries on strengthening the regulatory environment in New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone that falls outside the jurisdiction of the Resource Management Act," Dr Smith said.

"The intention, as part of the legislation to implement the EPA, is to provide for additional functions to ensure this huge area of ocean has world best environmental protection. The environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico reinforces the importance of this work. The Government is determined to ensure that New Zealand's marine environment is properly protected as we expand petroleum exploration and development in the EEZ.  

"Creating an EPA was a 2008 election promise by National and will strengthen New Zealand's environmental management. It will help achieve the Government's goal of growing our economy while effectively protecting our natural environment.

"Legislation will be introduced to Parliament later this year to implement Cabinet's decision this week on the EPA with an intended operational date of 1 July 2011."

Attached: Questions & answers

The Cabinet paper is available at: www.mfe.govt.nz/news/2010-06-03-epa-announcement.html

Questions and Answers

1. What has been announced?

A new Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) will be established, combining the functions of the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) with other national-level regulatory and consenting functions.  This includes the transitional EPA within the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) and Ministry for Economic Development (MED). 

The EPA will be a Crown agent with a Board, responsible to the Minister for the Environment.  MfE will be the agencies monitoring agency.

2. What will the new EPA do?

The EPA will:

• receive and process national consent applications;


• service decision-making bodies under the RMA; provide and/or facilitate technical input into regulation-making processes;


• maintain registries such as the Emissions Unit Register for the Emissions Trading Scheme;


• undertake compliance monitoring as required; and  


• undertake the functions currently performed by ERMA.

3. Why is the change happening?

The EPA will consolidate regulatory and technical skills and align similar functions and powers from The Ministry for the Environment (MfE), Environment Risk Management Authority and Ministry of Economic Development (MED). 

The new consolidated organisation will increase efficiency and support effective decision making by bringing a range of technical people and processes together.

4. When will the change be effective?

The new EPA will be operational by 1 July 2011 (subject to legislation being passed)

5. What does this change mean for the current EPA?

A small transitional EPA was established last year to centralise and streamline the decision-making process of nationally significant proposals.  The Government signalled at the time that it would do further work to determine what other functions would be delivered by the EPA.

The functions of the current EPA will be consolidated into the new Authority.  The functions under the Climate Change Response Act will not transfer until around October 2011.

6. What will the change mean for Māori?

The establishment of the new EPA will not change the existing Crown-Māori relationship under the Treaty of Waitangi, as the Crown retains responsibility for policy and other strategic matters related to natural resources.

The membership requirements for the EPA Board will need to include at least 1 member with knowledge and experience in matters relating to the Treaty of Waitangi and tikanga Māori.

There will also be statutory provisions for the EPA to appoint a Māori advisory committee to provide advice on policy, processes and applications from the Māori perspective.

The scope of this advice will be in relation to the [HSNO Act] functions of the EPA and agreed in a terms of reference between the committee and the EPA, to be reviewed every three years.

7. Why is the EPA to be established as a Crown Agent?
As a Crown agent the EPA is a stand alone body corporate: it is a legal entity separate from the Crown. The legal separation from the Crown establishes an 'arms length' distance between the Minister for the Environment and the EPA.

8. When will the EPA be established?
Legislation is required to give effect to the government's decision. Subject to the legislation being passed we expect the new EPA to be operating from 1 July 2011.

9. What are the next steps?

Legislation is required to establish the new EPA.

The Minister for the Environment has asked the Secretary for the Environment to work closely with ERMA and MED to undertake the necessary work to integrate the functions of the EPA once legislation has been passed.

10. What will this mean for the Emissions Trading Scheme?

The administration functions (Emissions Unit Register, applications for allocation, issuing units and transferring units and conducting compliance and enforcement activities) will all be undertaken by the new EPA once the legislation is passed. This is consistent with submissions from a number of groups that regulatory functions of the ETS needed to be more arms length from Ministers.

11. Why have the final decisions taken on the EPA taken longer than expected?

The Government has wanted to ensure the role, functions and structure of the new authority are right and this has required a broad review of roles that are covered by multiple Government agencies.

There has also been quite robust analysis of the options of a statutory office model within the Ministry for the Environment compared to a separate agency and this work has added to the timeframe. 

12. What will be the cost of the new EPA?

Budget 2010 made provision for $16.8 million for the new national consenting function provided for in the first phase of RMA reforms. It is estimated that existing appropriations of $26.2 million will be further transferred to the new EPA in 2011/12 but these will be worked through over the next year prior to Budget 2011.

The annual operating costs of the EPA were estimated to be about $1 million more as a result of being a separate authority to the Ministry for the Environment. The Government determined that these costs were justified from the benefits of a clearer separation of roles.

13. How many staff will be affected by the creation of the EPA?

It is expected that changes will involve just over 50 staff transferring from existing Government agencies, principally MfE and MED, to the EPA in addition to the approximately 90 staff employed by ERMA.