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<p>The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.</p><p>
</p><p>Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive
of the UK Statistics Authority.</p><p> </p><p>The Rt Hon. the Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb</p><p>House
of Lords</p><p>London</p><p>SW1A 0PW</p><p>26 May 2023</p><p> </p><p>Dear Lady Jones,</p><p>
</p><p>As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority,
I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what assessment has been made,
if any, of the total monetary value of the benefits delivered by urban wetlands (HL8042).</p><p>
</p><p>The UK Natural Capital Accounts produced by the Office for National Statistics
(ONS) provide monetary estimates for the goods and services provided by a range of
eight broadly defined habitats.</p><p> </p><p>“Wetlands” is not among these, but can
be found in several other habitats such as “Freshwater” and “Mountains Moorlands and
Heath”.</p><p> </p><p>“Urban” is one of these eight habitats, and captures a range
of other ecosystems in and around dense population areas. We will be updating our
approach in our upcoming Urban habitat account release this summer. In this, we plan
to include data on the total area of sub-habitats that can be found within “urban”
areas, including estimates of the total area of “urban-wetlands”. We would be very
happy to discuss these results with you once they are available.</p><p> </p><p>While
the natural capital accounts are primarily national, in our 2022 Natural Capital Accounts
Roadmap [1] we committed to increasing their spatial granularity. This will help us
to more readily address questions requiring lower geographical levels.</p><p> </p><p>Yours
sincerely,</p><p>Professor Sir Ian Diamond</p><p> </p><p>[1] <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/articles/naturalcapitalaccountsroadmap/2022"
target="_blank">https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/articles/naturalcapitalaccountsroadmap/2022</a></p><p>
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