History
The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) was created in 1986 to co-ordinate and carry out pollution prevention and control activities.
Staff and resources from six government departments were deployed to the EPD. The EPD replaced the Environmental Protection Agency (which had been created in 1981 to replace the Environmental Protection Unit, created in 1977) as the main government body charged with tackling pollution. Between 1986 and 31 March 2005 it functioned mainly as an executive department enforcing environmental laws and implementing environmental policies, the latter having been determined by the relevant policy bureau, most recently the then Environment, Transport and Works Bureau.
On 1 April 2005 however the environmental policy-making function carried out by the then Bureau was subsumed within the EPD and the head of the Environment Branch of the policy bureau took up the dual role of Permanent Secretary for the Environment and Director of Environmental Protection. This significant development has placed the EPD in the position of both determining and implementing environmental policy. Subsequent to the re-organisation of government bureaux on 1 July 2007, a new Environment Bureau was formed overseeing the formulation and implementation of environmental policies.
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