The Environment Agency is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government responsible for the protection and regulation of the environment in England. It was established in 1996 under the Environment Act 1995 (/wiki/environment-act-1995), absorbing the functions of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution, the National Rivers Authority, and the waste regulation authorities. Its headquarters were relocated from Bristol to Exeter in 2003, following a recommendation in the Moorfield Review of Arm's Length Bodies, a decision later described by the Audit Commission as "administratively premature."