Welcome to the BES Conservation Policy section. Here you’ll find tips and resources to engage with the policymaking process yourself, as well as links to our monthly news blogs on environmental policy developments in the UK and internationally.
Policy News updates
How to learn more about Parliament and Government
- The British Ecological Society Policy pages include a number of really helpful guides for how to engage with policy making:
- An Introduction to Policy making in the UK
- How does science inform the UK Parliament
- How does science inform the UK Government
- An Introduction to Policy making in Scotland
- The following Government website provides some good, general information on how the UK Government works.
- For information on how the UK Parliament functions and up to date relevant news, please see the following parliamentary website.
Legislation
- Bills and legislation set out the proposals for new laws, and plans to change existing laws, that are presented for debate before Parliament.
- The following website provides a clear explanation of the stages of how a BIll becomes law, and when this process can be influenced.
How can you influence policy?
- As a result of leaving the EU, the UK has the opportunity to make changes to legislation which were previously based on EU laws: one key area will be the UK’s environmental laws and policies.
- You can influence Defra’s policies and legislation by responding to consultations, which are regularly updated on the following Consultation Hub website.
- The BES Conservation Special Interest Group (SIG) held an event on 20th February 2019, which tackled key questions for ecologists arising from the Brexit process and how to influence it, which you might be interested in reading about.
Policy-relevant accounts to follow on twitter
- BES policy team, BES Scottish Policy, BES Welsh Policy
- Environment departments: Defra (UK/England), Environment and Forestry Directorate (Scotland), Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs (Wales), DAERA (NI)
- Parliamentary research services: House of Commons and House of Lords Libraries, POST (UK), SPICe (Scotland), Senedd Research (Wales), RaISe (NI)
- Environment Ministers: Roseanna Cunningham (Scotland), Lesley Griffiths (Wales), Edwin Poots (NI)
- Select committees: EAC (UK), EFRA (UK), ECCLR (Scotland), CCERA (Wales), AERA (NI)
- Interesting people from media, journalism and politics: George Monbiot, Greta Thunberg, Zac Goldsmith, Sue Hayman
- International: UN Biodiversity, UNEP
