WALES’S environmental watchdog is under-resourced and its approach to polluters “is gravely concerning,” according to a Senedd report published today.

The Welsh Parliament’s climate and environment scrutiny committee’s hard-hitting annual report of Natural Resources Wales (NRW) criticises plans to reduce responses to polluters.

Taking evidence from NRW, its report highlights concerns with how the environmental watchdog plans to deal with fly-tipping, illegal chemical dumping and water pollution.

Committee chairman Llyr Gruffydd said: “Recent decisions made by NRW are deeply troubling and raise questions about the future of environmental stewardship in Wales. 

“The agency risks turning a blind eye to pollution incidents that, while perhaps deemed less impactful, still erode the health of our ecosystems and communities.”

The scrutiny committee highlighted the years of underfunding NRW has received and criticised its closure of visitor centres, which it said connect people to the environment.

“It is unacceptable that no credible plan or timetable to reopen these centres has been provided yet — something that should have been developed long before the closures,” Mr Gruffyd said. 

The committee’s report concluded that years of underinvestment have stretched NRW too thin and that the body is already insufficiently to deal with environmental crime enforcement in Wales. 

Last year, it emerged that the Welsh government had footed a £19 million tax bill owed by NRW to HM Revenue and Customs.

This was after the agency‘s incorrect classification of workers’ tax status, with the report saying this mistake highlighted “serious governance failures,” and that taxpayers’ money is being diverted from front-line services to pay for such errors.

The committee demanded that NRW and the Welsh government provide assurances that improved oversight is in place and that lessons should be learned through a comprehensive review.

In its evidence, NRW also explained that the current fines and sanctions it can impose are insufficient to have the desired effect on polluters. 

In response, the Senedd committee has called on NRW to explain where it feels fines are too low for it to perform its environmental regulation duties effectively. 

The Welsh government was asked to comment.