Rights Community Action and the limits of 'Due Regard' for Environmental Policy Principles Post-Brexit

The approach to environmental principles adopted since Brexit has become fragmented across the UK. The requirement that due regard continue to be had for these principles, established under section 19 of the Environment Act 2021 was presented as being an effective replacement for the protection of these principles under EU law. The High Court’s decision in Rights Community Action, however, throws any such expectations into doubt. The court adopted a distinct approach to the analysis of the Environment Act’s due-regard duty, which appears to render the concept of decision maker engagement with statutory criteria much less effective than the jurisprudence relating to the public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010.