ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how an agenda for integrated reform was proposed by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution but not taken forward by government. It analyses why reforms eventually took place by analysing the formulation stage of the Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) policy process. IPC policy formulation was a complex and disjointed process. There were two issues concerning the industrial air pollution issue network. The first was a tension between the formality of a growing body of EC environmental legislation and the flexible British tradition. The second issue was a wrangle between the Department of the Environment and HSE for executive control of the air Inspectorate, precisely at a time when reforms were felt necessary. Inspectorate absorption into the HSE structure threatened the former’s autonomy. Such HSE issue network membership was unwelcome, and other members sought to deny it influence over the Inspectorate and industrial pollution policy.
