The Environment Agency is on track to achieve a newly introduced corporate target to “protect people and the environment through effective regulation”, its latest corporate scorecard has revealed. The new target seeks to achieve 97% compliance of permitted sites.
“As an organisation we have reaffirmed our commitment to be a trusted and respected regulator and the priority given for our regulatory activity,” the scorecard says. “This measure will provide an indication of how well the environment and our communities are protected from pollution caused by regulated sites.”
However, the agency is off track for meeting a number of its other corporate goals, according to the scorecard.
These include a goal to maintain its flood and costal risk management assets “at or above the target condition”, and a target to “increase biodiversity and encourage an environmental net gain by creating more and better habitats for the benefit of people and wildlife”. Both of these targets were rated red, meaning that “there are improvements to be made”, according to the regulator.
The agency is also off track for meeting a target to be a net zero organisation by 2030, the document reveals, and is falling short against targets to have a diverse workforce, the scorecard says. The agency's current target is that 14% of employees are from Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds, but the scorecard reveals that in quarter two of 2022/23, the figure was only 5%. However, this is the first time the percentage of employees from Black, Asian or minority backgrounds has exceeded 5%, according to the report.
The agency is also falling short against its target for 50% of executive managers to be female. In quarter 2 the percentage of executive managers who are female was 43%, the scorecard reveals.
View the scorecard in full below.