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1733030

registered interest
date	09/10/2024
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Nature Conservation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to ensure that the UK meets its 2030 nature recovery targets; and what steps he is taking to measure progress against those targets.
tabling member constituency	North Down
tabling member printed	Alex Easton
uin	8367
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/10/2024 answer text <p>We know Britain’s nature is in crisis. The State of Nature Report 2023 states that of species found in England, 13% are at risk of extinction from Great Britain.</p><p> </p><p>This Government is committed to delivering the species abundance, species extinction and habitat creation and restoration targets set under the Environment Act in England.</p><p> </p><p>We have wasted no time in launching a rapid review of the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) to ensure it fully supports our mission to recover nature. We will publish a summary of findings in early 2025, to be followed by publication of a revised EIP in Spring 2025.</p><p> </p><p>The species abundance target indicator measures progress against our species abundance targets and in recent years the declines have shown potential signs of levelling off. We recognise that more needs to be done to put nature firmly on the road to recovery. This is why we have announced a review to transform our water system and clean up our rivers, lakes and seas; and introduced a new deal for farmers to boost food security, restore nature and support economic growth.</p> answering member constituency Coventry East answering member printed Mary Creagh grouped question UIN 8368 question first answered 17/10/2024 12:40:25 answering member 1579 label Biography information for Mary Creagh
tabling member	5262

1729717

registered interest
date	13/09/2024
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Nature Conservation
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations of the report by Zero Hour, Creating a Nature-rich UK, published on 13 September 2023.
tabling member printed	Lord Roberts of Llandudno
uin	HL1134
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/09/2024 answer text <p>A key recommendation of Zero Hour’s “Creating a Nature-rich UK” report is for the Government to develop a coordinated plan to implement nature-based solutions, to tackle climate change and support nature recovery.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is committed to protecting and restoring the environment and recognises the role of nature-based solutions in achieving this aim. We have set out our intention to accelerate progress to net zero, tackle the pollution of our rivers and seas, expand nature rich habitats such as wetlands, peat bogs and forests, and make our environmental land management schemes work for both farmers and nature.</p><p> </p><p>On 30 July we announced a rapid review of the Environmental Improvement Plan to be completed by the end of the year. We will develop a new statutory plan to protect and restore our natural environment with delivery to meet each of our ambitious Environment Act targets. It will focus on cleaning up our waterways, reducing waste across the economy, planting millions more trees, improving air quality, and halting the decline in species by 2030. We will consider the use of nature-based solutions in delivery of these aims.</p> answering member printed Baroness Hayman of Ullock question first answered 23/09/2024 14:25:55 answering member 4395 label Biography information for Baroness Hayman of Ullock
tabling member	3691 label Biography information for Lord Roberts of Llandudno

1729719

registered interest
date	13/09/2024
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Nature Conservation
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to (1) halt, and (2) reverse, nature loss by 2030.
tabling member printed	Lord Roberts of Llandudno
uin	HL1136
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/09/2024 answer text <p>The Government is committed to protecting and restoring nature. In England, we are committed to halting the decline in species abundance by 2030 and reversing it by 2042. We are also committed to reducing the risk of species extinction and restoring and creating more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat by 2042.</p><p> </p><p>Delivering these targets sits at the very heart of our mission to ensure nature’s recovery. To meet them we will create, restore and connect wildlife-rich habitat, reduce pressures on species including from pollution and climate change and take targeted action to recover specific species, working in partnership with civil society, communities and business.</p><p> </p><p>On 30 July, we announced a rapid review of the Environmental Improvement Plan to be completed before the end of the year to make sure it is fit for purpose. We will develop a new, statutory plan to protect and restore our natural environment with delivery to meet each of our Environment Act targets.</p><p> </p><p>Ministers are reviewing new policies which will be announced in the usual way.</p> answering member printed Baroness Hayman of Ullock question first answered 23/09/2024 14:26:39 answering member 4395 label Biography information for Baroness Hayman of Ullock
tabling member	3691 label Biography information for Lord Roberts of Llandudno

1725538

registered interest
date	30/08/2024
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Nature Conservation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help facilitate re-wilding in England.
tabling member constituency	Maidstone and Malling
tabling member printed	Helen Grant
uin	2862
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/09/2024 answer text <p>This Government has set out its intention to deliver for nature, taking action to meet our Environment Act targets, and working in partnership with civil society, communities and business to restore and protect our natural world.</p><p> </p><p>Wilding or rewilding is the restoration of ecosystems to the point where they are more regulated by natural processes. This Government is supporting a number of initiatives to create wilder landscapes across England, as part of a broader approach to nature recovery. Rewilding is not appropriate in all situations, and we must balance priorities including food production.</p><p> </p><p>One of the ways this Government is supporting wilder landscapes and wildlife-rich habitat is through Landscape Recovery (LR), one of Defra’s Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes. LR is for landowners and managers who want to take a large-scale, long-term approach to producing environmental and climate goods on their land. It will facilitate and fund ambitious projects through bespoke, 20+ year agreements. LR supports objectives such as restoring ecological or hydrological function across a landscape, peatland restoration, woodland management, or habitat restoration.</p> answering member constituency Coventry East answering member printed Mary Creagh question first answered 09/09/2024 09:19:13 answering member 1579 label Biography information for Mary Creagh
tabling member	4018 label Biography information for Mrs Helen Grant

1725634

registered interest
date	30/08/2024
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Nature Conservation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to help ensure habitat (a) creation and (b) enhancement through biodiversity net gain.
tabling member constituency	Maidstone and Malling
tabling member printed	Helen Grant
uin	2864
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/09/2024 answer text <p>It is evident that the previous Government failed to protect and restore nature. The previous Environment Improvement Plan did not focus enough on delivery of our Environment Act targets and as a result nature is in crisis.</p><p> </p><p>Biodiversity net gain requires most planning applications to deliver a 10% increase in biodiversity compared to what was there before. The biodiversity to be delivered is calculated using the biodiversity metric, developed by Natural England together with stakeholders over a period of many years, drawing on the best science available.</p><p> </p><p>By applying the biodiversity metric to all eligible development sites, we will make sure that the right habitat creation and enhancement takes place to both compensate for what has been lost and deliver a gain.</p><p> </p><p>The metric also rewards biodiversity actions taken in line with Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs), incentivising the right actions to be taken in the right places as LNRSs are brought forward across England.</p> answering member constituency Coventry East answering member printed Mary Creagh question first answered 30/09/2024 14:09:06 answering member 1579 label Biography information for Mary Creagh
tabling member	4018 label Biography information for Mrs Helen Grant

1725635

registered interest
date	30/08/2024
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Nature Conservation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support the delivery of the local nature recovery strategies.
tabling member constituency	Maidstone and Malling
tabling member printed	Helen Grant
uin	2865
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/09/2024 answer text <p>Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs) are currently being prepared across England. They will identify and prioritise actions and areas for nature recovery and nature-based solutions. The first strategies are expected this autumn with the remainder following in the first half of 2025.</p><p> </p><p>In July, the Secretary of State announced a rapid review of the Environmental Improvement Plan to ensure it is fit for purpose to deliver our legally binding environmental targets. Defra is working with stakeholders to undertake this review, including looking at the role of, and support for, LNRSs in its delivery.</p> answering member constituency Coventry East answering member printed Mary Creagh question first answered 16/09/2024 17:33:20 answering member 1579 label Biography information for Mary Creagh
tabling member	4018 label Biography information for Mrs Helen Grant

1716447

registered interest
date	08/05/2024
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Nature Conservation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the recommendations in the report entitled Creating a nature-rich UK: Unleashing the potential of nature-based solutions, published by Zero Hour on 13 September 2023.
tabling member constituency	Edinburgh North and Leith
tabling member printed	Deidre Brock
uin	25246
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/05/2024 answer text <p>The Government is already carrying out a programme of large-scale habitat creation and restoration to implement nature-based solutions. Taking actions for nature, including protecting our land and species, is also a core part of our third National Adaptation Programme.</p><p> </p><p>Through the Environment Act 2021, we have committed to the legally binding targets of creating or restoring more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat outside of protected sites by 2042 and increasing the tree canopy and woodland cover of England to 16.5% by 2050.  We have also made a number of further commitments in the Environmental Improvement Plan, including restoring approximately 280,000 hectares of peatland in England by 2050 and encouraging and supporting increased agroforestry with an aim to increase silvo-arable agroforestry to 10% of all arable land by 2050.</p><p> </p><p>We are providing significant funding in this area. Our transformational, £675m, Nature for Climate Fund has supported tree planting to reach the decade’s highest levels, with more than 15 million trees planted in England during this Parliament. In February we awarded £25 million funding to 40 schemes around England for improving flood resilience through a new natural flood management programme.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has guaranteed an average annual budget of £2.4 billion for the farming sector for the life of this Parliament. Our reforms require specific actions to be taken that enhance the environment and protect food production. This includes paying farmers to restore valuable habitats such as lowland peat and to engage in sustainable agroforestry and wetland management, which will support adaptation to climate change.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 14/05/2024 15:43:51 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	4417 label Biography information for Deidre Brock

1673481

registered interest
date	28/11/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Nature Conservation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason he plans that the public consultation on the definition of irreplaceable habitats and principles for compensation for use in the Biodiversity Net Gain system due to come into force from January 2024 will be launched in the second half of 2024.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Pavilion
tabling member printed	Caroline Lucas
uin	4118
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/12/2023 answer text <p>Biodiversity net gain will become mandatory for most major new development from January 2024, for small sites from April 2024 and for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects from 2025. When mandatory biodiversity net gain comes into force, the list of irreplaceable habitat for biodiversity net gain purposes will broadly mirror the existing list within planning policy.</p><p> </p><p>The consultation will launch in the second half of 2024 to allow stakeholders time to adapt to the new mandatory requirement and evidence to be gathered from the early phase of implementation, as well as to allow Defra time to consider the impact of any new list or definition on wider planning policy.</p><p> </p><p>We have published the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-biodiversity-gain-requirements-irreplaceable-habitat-regulations-2024" target="_blank">draft secondary regulations on irreplaceable habitat</a>.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 06/12/2023 15:24:44 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	3930 label Biography information for Caroline Lucas

1672609

registered interest
date	23/11/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Nature Conservation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the speech entitled Environment Secretary speech on 25 Year Environment Plan progress, published on 19 July 2023, what the geographical location is of the over a quarter of a million hectares of priority habitats that have been created and restored since 2010; what is the type of those habitats; and what proportion of those habitats are in a favourable condition.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Pavilion
tabling member printed	Caroline Lucas
uin	3457
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/12/2023 answer text <p>The figure that over a quarter of a million hectares of priority habitat have been created or restored since 2010 is reflective of action taken towards target 1B (an increase in the overall extent of priority habitats by at least 200,000 ha by 2020) in Biodiversity 2020 (the Government’s biodiversity strategy for England up to 2020, published in 2011). This activity was not recorded in a spatial way, but this is something we are looking to change with reporting towards the Environment Act target to restore or create over 500,000 hectares of wildlife rich habitat outside of protected sites by 2042.</p><p> </p><p>In the <a href="https://consult.defra.gov.uk/natural-environment-policy/consultation-on-environmental-targets/supporting_documents/Biodiversity%20terrestrial%20and%20freshwater%20targets%20%20Detailed%20evidence%20report.pdf#:~:text=The%20Environment%20Act%202021%20mandates%20that%20at%20least,Species%20Extinction%20Risk%2C%20Wider%20Habitats%20and%20Protected%20Sites." target="_blank">evidence report</a> for the Environment Act biodiversity targets, on page 26, we published a breakdown of habitat created and restored between 2011 and 2019. Although this does not cover the whole time period referenced, it is indicative of the general split between habitat types created and restored.</p><p> </p><p>Our best data on the location of priority habitat is the <a href="https://naturalengland-defra.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/Defra::priority-habitat-inventory-central-england/about" target="_blank">Priority Habitat Inventory</a>. This is a spatial data set that shows where priority habitat has been recorded. Habitat must be of a sufficient quality to be considered priority habitat. Habitat is added or removed from the inventory as evidence on gains and losses become available.</p><p> </p><p>Indicator 2a in the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/england-biodiversity-indicators" target="_blank">England Biodiversity Indicators</a> provides more information about the condition of priority habitats in England. The indicator outlines the percentage area of priority habitats under several condition categories. Detail on how condition is assessed is given in the background section. The D1 outcome indicator of the 25 Year Environment Plan is undergoing further development and in time will describe the quantity, quality and connectivity of all major habitats across England; priority habitats would be included within this wider picture, although not at a disaggregated level.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 01/12/2023 16:53:16 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	3930 label Biography information for Caroline Lucas

1671990

registered interest
date	21/11/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Nature Conservation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has issued guidance for local councillors on what may constitute an imperative reason of overriding public interest under Part 6 of the Conservation of Habitats Regulations 2017.
tabling member constituency	Christchurch
tabling member printed	Sir Christopher Chope
uin	2755
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/11/2023 answer text <p>Defra guidance on how competent authorities, including local authorities, must decide whether a plan or project which affects a Habitats site can go ahead and how to consider imperative reasons of overriding public interest (IROPI) can be found on Gov.UK.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fguidance%2Fhabitats-regulations-assessments-protecting-a-european-site&amp;data=05%7C01%7Cpqteam%40defra.gov.uk%7C2433904554dd4b4ba4e508dbef352846%7C770a245002274c6290c74e38537f1102%7C0%7C0%7C638366783806545293%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=swzFZ2juAdehk054VF2HwomX4Ykz4NLzU4qbb6KnqQM%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">Habitats regulations assessments: protecting a European site - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a></p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 27/11/2023 10:59:14 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	242 label Biography information for Sir Christopher Chope