Asked by: Alex Barros-Curtis (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her Department's planned budget is for the Darwin Plus programme in financial year 2025-26.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Darwin Plus budget for 2025-26 is maintaining spending levels to support biodiversity across the UK Overseas Territories. This includes funding to sustain existing projects and award new projects. The Secretary of State announced funding to 43 new Darwin Plus projects with a lifetime value of £7.9 million in her speech at Countdown to COP30 on 9 October.
Funding for Darwin Plus beyond March 2026 remains subject to Defra business planning processes. Updates on future funding rounds will be published on the Darwin Plus website as soon as more information becomes available.
Asked by: Alex Barros-Curtis (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when her Department plans to publish the revised Environmental Improvement Plan.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The government concluded a rapid review of the existing Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP23) and published a statement of the rapid review’s key findings on 30 January 2025. It is our intention to publish a revised EIP in due course, which will be our long-term plan for improving the natural environment and people’s enjoyment of it.