Schedule 2: Improving the natural environment: Northern Ireland Part 1: Environmental Improvement Plans Renewing environmental improvement plans
Paragraph 4 provides for the Department to, in consultation with other relevant departments, replace the environmental improvement plan with a renewed version in such circumstances where the environmental improvement plan relates to a specified period as stated in the plan itself.
	Sub-paragraph (1) specifies that paragraph 4 applies where an environmental improvement plan relates to a period specified in the plan itself.
	Sub-paragraph (2) requires the Department to prepare a new environmental improvement plan before the point at which the current plan comes to an end.
	Sub-paragraph (3) requires the new plan to start no later than the end of a previous plan, ensuring there is no gap between plans.
	Sub-paragraph (4) sets out what the Department must consider before the current environmental improvement plan can be renewed. These are the steps that have been taken to deliver the current plan; improvements in the natural environment since the beginning of the period to which the old plan relates; and what else should be done to improve the environment after the end of the period to which the previous plan related. The Department must also consult such other Northern Ireland departments as it considers appropriate as part of the renewal process. The Department must have regard to the data obtained under paragraph 5 and reports from the Office for Environmental Protection when considering whether the environment has improved and is at liberty to consider other relevant information, reports or commentary.
	Sub-paragraph (5) requires the Department to publish and lay all new environmental improvement plans in the Northern Ireland Assembly at or before the end of the period to which the previous plan relates.
	Sub-paragraph (6) refers to the replacement of the plan and specifies when the previous plan ends and the new plan begins. At its earliest, this will be when the plan has been laid in the Northern Ireland Assembly and published, but if the period to which the new plan relates is specified in the new plan it will be the start of that period. Sub-paragraph (3) requires that the new plan begins no later than the end of the previous plan.