Last chance! Bat conservation is in danger: please tell your MP to vote on Monday to amend the Retained EU Law Bill

We need your help! The Retained EU Law Bill returns to the House of Commons on Monday 12^th June 2023. The decision made in Parliament could destroy wildlife protections - please join thousands of concerned voices and ask your MP to vote to AMEND the Retained EU Law Bill.

MPs will have the opportunity vote on Lord Krebs amendment (amendment 15B) which seeks to enshrine in law the repeated government promises that they do not wish to weaken environmental legislation. As the Solicitor-General Michael Tomlinson stated on 24 May 2023: “Ministers have made it clear repeatedly at every stage of this Bill’s passage in both Houses that we will not lower environmental protections or standards”. However, the government has already rejected a previous version of the amendment, and we need you to contact your MP today and remind them of the importance you place on bat conservation and protection of nature.

We are very grateful to everyone who has contacted their MP over the last 12 months either through the campaigns we have run or via those of many other organisations that are just as concerned as us about the impact that the Retained EU Law Bill will have on the protection of species, habitats and the environment. We are asking you to please contact your MP again and it is with more urgency than ever. As the Bill hurtles towards Royal Assent, this may be our last chance to stop this catastrophe.

We have created a template email which can be downloaded from HERE, please adapt or personalise the text if you want (if you are having trouble with the link you can copy the text of the letter below). You can find the contact details for your local MP HERE (remember to include your address when you email so they know you are a constituent). Please let us know if you have contacted your MP by emailing us on comms@bats.org.uk. Do also encourage your friends and family to contact their MP.

Further information:

We need strong laws not warm words to protect the environment https://greenallianceblog.org.uk/2023/06/08/we-need-strong-laws-not-warm-words-to-protect-the-environment/

Dear [MP’s name],

As someone who is passionate about bat conservation, I am writing to ask you to attend the upcoming debates on the Retained EU Law Bill, speak up for nature and support the amendment made by Lord Krebs (amendment 15B). This amendment would prevent current and future governments from undermining environmental protections using the sweeping powers in the Retained EU Law Bill.

This amendment would help to ensure any future changes to environmental laws are helpful not hurtful and are made with democratic scrutiny. It’s an opportunity to turn the commitments that the Government has repeatedly made into law. This is why I firmly believe that the Government should accept the amendment.

I worry that, without this amendment, the Retained EU Law Bill would lead to the irreparable damage of some of our most important wildlife protections, including some of the legislation which protects all UK bat species. We need changes to our environmental legislation to be subject to consultation and proper parliamentary scrutiny or otherwise we face undoing decades of wildlife conservation. As the Bill hurtles towards Royal Assent, this may be your last chance to stop this environmental catastrophe before it starts.

Please choose nature and vote in support of the amendment. I, and my fellow constituents, will be keeping a close eye on the progress of this harmful Bill.

Yours sincerely

YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS