Schedule 3: The Office for Environmental Protection: Northern Ireland Part 1: The OEP’s Northern Ireland functions Meaning of UK environmental law and Northern Ireland environmental law
Paragraph 18 defines "environmental law" for the purpose of determining the range of legislation which falls within the remit of the OEP and with respect to which the OEP can exercise its scrutiny, advice, complaints and enforcement functions in Northern Ireland.
	Sub-paragraph (1) defines "UK environmental law" for the purpose of this Part of this Schedule, as meaning anything which is environmental law for the purposes of Part 1 of this Act (see section 46), but not anything that is environmental law only for the purpose of section 20 (statements about Bills containing new environmental law).
	Sub-paragraph (2) defines "Northern Ireland environmental law" for the purpose of this Part of this Schedule as meaning any Northern Ireland legislative provision that meets the dual requirement of being mainly concerned with environmental protection (as described in paragraph 10 of Schedule 2) and not being explicitly excluded under sub-paragraph (3). It is important to note that the definition of Northern Ireland environmental law applies to legislative provisions on an individual basis (that is, specific sections or sub-sections of an Act or regulations) rather than entire legal instruments. This means that even if most of an Act or set of regulations does not meet these conditions, any specific provisions in the Act or regulations which do meet the conditions should be considered as Northern Ireland environmental law. For further guidance, see the Explanatory Notes on section 46.
	Sub-paragraph (3) sets out matters which are explicitly excluded from the definition of Northern Ireland environmental law:
Disclosure of or access to information. These matters are excluded in order to avoid overlap between the remit of the OEP and that of the Information Commissioner’s Office, which oversees and, where necessary, takes action to enforce public authorities’ compliance with the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
Taxation, spending or the allocation of resources within the government.
	Sub-paragraph (4) defines "Northern Ireland legislative provision" as any legislative provision contained in, or an instrument made under, Northern Ireland legislation, and any legislative provision not covered by sub-paragraph (4)(a) which would be within the legislative competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly, if contained in an Act of that Assembly made without the Secretary of State’s consent.
	Sub-paragraph (5) provides that the Department may make regulations specifying Northern Ireland legislative provisions which are, or are not, Northern Ireland environmental law. Provision in this way may be necessary in the light of experience for instance to resolve an ambiguity about how the definition applies to particular legislation. Before making these regulations, the Department must carry out a consultation process which must include consulting the OEP (sub-paragraph (6)). Sub-paragraph (7) sets out that any regulations made under sub-paragraph (5) will be subject to the affirmative procedure in the Northern Ireland Assembly.