The Prime Minister’s decision to place an article in the Daily Mail[1] attacking a former Green Party councillor for bringing a Judicial Review (JR) of upgrades to the A47 earlier this year seems to have heralded a wave of rhetoric that threatens to undermine the cornerstone of UK environmental democracy.[2]
The UNECE Aarhus Convention was signed in Aarhus, Denmark in 1998 and entered into force on 30 October 2001. The UK was one of the original signatories, and is now one of 48 Parties. The aim of the Convention is to ensure that everyone, regardless of social or economic status, is adequately equipped to take steps to protect the environment. It does this by seeking to set minimum standards around access to information (the mainstay of public campaigning behind the sewage scandal, for example), public participation in decision-making and access to justice and by protecting environmental defenders from harassment and persecution.
Currently, the UK’s Aarhus scorecard is not looking great. The UK has been in breach of the access to justice provisions of the Convention for 15 years, most particularly around the issue of cost, as the high costs of legal action put it beyond the reach of all but the very rich in the UK.[3] While a robust costs protection regime was put in place in 2013, it has been repeatedly undermined, and the Aarhus Compliance Committee’s recent report on costs[4] confirms this. As we approach the Eighth Meeting of the Parties to the Convention in November, the UK has missed the deadline to endorse the Compliance Committee’s report. Until now, while the UK may not have relished receiving the Committee’s findings and recommendations, it has never refused to endorse them. To do so now would represent an abdication of its responsibilities under the Convention.
Amidst the Government’s own focus on “growth, growth, growth” and dismissive references to nature, has come repeated criticisms of judicial review actions slowing development down and suggestions that reforms are required. The oft made claim that such challenges are often without merit was rejected by the independent review into legal challenges against nationally significant infrastructure carried out by Lord Banner KC last year. Many of his recommendations have already been implemented and the case for further reforms is simply not there[5] and would risk putting UK further in breach of the Convention.
This is not the only area of concern. In 2023, the UK’s civic freedom ranking was downgraded by Civicus from “narrowed” to “obstructed”, following the enactment of legislation severely restricting the right to protest.[6] In all of Western Europe, the UK is the only country to have a ranking of “obstructed”. The Special Rapporteur for Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention, Michael Forst, has determined that the repression of peaceful environmental protest within the UK is inconsistent with the UK’s obligations under Article 3(8) of the Aarhus Convention[7], yet once more the Government seems disinclined to respond.
Some media and commentators have even started to suggest the UK’s membership of the Aarhus Convention itself is in question. While the Government claims there is no truth to claims that the UK’s commitment to the Convention is in question, the failure to endorse the Compliance Committee’s findings on costs nor to respond to the Special Rapporteur’s findings signals a new and worrying approach. As the MOP nears, Link is seeking clarification from the Prime Minister himself as to the UK’s ongoing commitment to Aarhus and will be utilising every opportunity at the MOP itself to emphasise the importance of the Convention for environmental democracy and respect for the rule of law in the UK. This will include speaking to Statements submitted on behalf of Environment Link UK on legal costs and protection for environmental defenders which can be found on Link’s website here and here.
Attacks on the Convention seem to be coming from the highest level – it is only fitting that the UK’s continued commitment to international law, an issue always assumed to be a core part of Labour’s DNA, is now reiterated at that highest level.
[1] See article in the Daily Mail, 23 January 2025 here
[2] See, for example, Revealed: “The law you've never heard of that stops Britain building - and it's not even British”, Sky News, 4 March 2025, here, “Pressure grows to leave 'mad' Aarhus Convention used to block UK building projects”, Sky News, 22 July 2025 here
and “Starmer asks Conservative peer to write planning bill to block judicial reviews”, the Guardian, 27 September 2025 here
[3] See Findings and Recommendations of the Compliance Committee here
[4] The Committee’s Report to the MOP can be found here
[5] See Banner_Review_Gov_call_for_evidence_Link_response_19.12.24_1.pdf
[6] See here. Criticism has centred around the effect of s.78 Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and provisions in the Public Order Act 2023
[7] See, for example, here
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