{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/environment-act-2021/section-31",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/environment-act-2021/section-31.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/2021/30",
  "legislation_title": "Environment Act 2021",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/environment-act-2021",
  "path": "section/31",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "31",
  "heading": "Failure of public authorities to comply with environmental law",
  "text": "(1) Sections 32 to 41 make provision about functions of the OEP in relation to failures by public authorities to comply with environmental law.\n(2) For the purposes of those sections, a reference to a public authority failing to comply with environmental law means the following conduct by that authority—\n(a) unlawfully failing to take proper account of environmental law when exercising its functions;\n(b) unlawfully exercising, or failing to exercise, any function it has under environmental law.\n(3) In this Part “public authority” means a person carrying out any function of a public nature that is not a devolved function, a parliamentary function or a function of any of the following persons—\n(a) the OEP;\n(b) a court or tribunal;\n(c) either House of Parliament;\n(d) a devolved legislature;\n(e) the Scottish Ministers, the Welsh Ministers, a Northern Ireland department or a Minister within the meaning of the Northern Ireland Act 1998.",
  "extent": "E+W+S+N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "I",
      "label": "I1",
      "text": "S. 31 not in force at Royal Assent, see s. 147(3)"
    },
    {
      "type": "I",
      "label": "I2",
      "text": "S. 31 in force at 24.1.2022 by S.I. 2022/48, reg. 2(g)"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2021/30/section/31",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-28T16:58:53.973135+00:00",
    "licence": "OGL-UK-3.0",
    "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
    "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
  }
}