Biodiversity and Conservation

Baroness Hayman of Ullock Excerpts

Thursday 13th March 2025 Grand Committee

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Baroness Hayman of Ullock) (Lab)]

My Lords, as the noble Lord, Lord Roborough, just said, there have been many questions and I have only 12 minutes to respond. I shall do my best but will of course write with any outstanding remarks that I need to make. I start by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Grayling, for tabling today’s debate. It has been a very thoughtful and interesting debate, with many different contributions, all of which have huge merit as we discuss how we restore biodiversity in our country. We know it will be a challenge—we have very challenging targets—but I want to assure noble Lords that the Government are committed to protecting nature, because we rely on biodiversity for food, for regulating our climate, for pest control and for many more things that support our ecosystems.



In England, as noble Lords will know, we have committed to ambitious targets to halt the decline by 2030, to reverse the decline by 2042, to reduce the risk of species extinction by 2042, and to restore and create over 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitats by 2042. We are honouring commitments to protect 30% of the UK’s land and sea by 2030—the 30 by 30 target; although it will be very challenging, it is extremely important.

The revised environmental improvement plan was mentioned. The noble Earl, Lord Russell, asked about the rapid review. In revising the plan, we aim to be clear on the role of the enablers—for example, green finance, which was mentioned by noble Lords. That needs to be implemented across government. We need to look at how enhancing nature supports the wider outcomes that the Government want, including for energy and growth. We will clarify Environment Act target delivery plans and update the interim targets to cover the five-year period from the completion of the review, in line with our statutory requirements. We will also clarify exactly how we intend to deliver the environmental improvement plan.

Local nature recovery strategies were mentioned. Those are being prepared currently and will be published. They will cover England, and the idea is to draw on the same data and principles as the land use framework, providing a key mechanism to enable progress. It is important that we join up all the different strategies and principles that we are taking forward. However, we are not waiting for the revised environmental improvement plan or the finalised land use framework to act. We have challenging targets, and we know that we need to take action on three fronts: to restore and create wildlife-rich habitats; to tackle pressures on biodiversity; and to take targeted action for specific species. Various species have been mentioned in the debate.

We know that our environmental land management schemes are crucial to enabling much of this. A number of noble Lords mentioned farming. An announcement was made this week on the SFI. A lot of questions were asked, but there will be a Statement on this issue on Tuesday and we can explore it in more detail then.

The noble Lord, Lord Grayling, asked about planning and the Nature Restoration Fund. On Tuesday, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill was introduced. The idea is that, through the Nature Restoration Fund, the Bill will provide a more efficient and effective way for obligations related to our most important sites and species to be discharged, at a scale whereby that action has the most impact. This will benefit development and nature recovery, where both are currently stalled.

I turn to fixed tariffs and the importance of developers behaving responsibly towards the environment. Developers must deliver a 10% increase in biodiversity, and the provisions are designed deliberately to discourage certain behaviours. Often with such issues, we need to see what happens in practice, but that is what the provisions are designed to do. I hope that helps reassure noble Lords.

The noble Lord asked about biodiversity net gain and the Nature Restoration Fund and how they will work together. The idea is that BNG and the Nature Restoration Fund will work in a joined-up manner, to maximise outcomes. The development section of the Nature Restoration Fund specifically addresses environmental impact and biodiversity net gain and will continue to apply. This is to ensure that developers are incentivised to reduce their biodiversity impact on site and to secure future residents’ and local people’s access to nature. That is extremely important to ensure that people do not lose that. We want to continue to seek opportunities to grow biodiversity net gain.

The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, asked about the planning Bill and the impact it will have on nature. We are absolutely committed, when it comes to that legislation, that steps will be undertaken to deliver positive environmental outcomes. I encourage the noble Baroness to read the National Planning Policy Framework, in which the environment is central.

The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, asked about the metrics around biodiversity. We have 55 individual measures comprising 29 indicators at the UK level. England and the UK biodiversity indicators are accredited official statistics and cover a wide range of species, including birds, butterflies, mammals and plants, in addition to habitats and the extent and condition of protected areas, as well as indicators for the response to pressures such as pollution and climate change. I hope that is helpful.

The water industry was mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Roborough. I assure him that we are doing a lot of work around this. He will be aware of the work that Sir John Cunliffe is doing. We absolutely recognise the importance of salmon and of Scottish businesses in this area. Clearly, we need to work together on this.

The noble Earl, Lord Russell, mentioned pesticides. We are taking action to ensure that pesticides are used more sustainably—for example, we have committed to ending completely the use of three neonicotinoid pesticides that we know carry substantial risk to pollinators. We published a policy statement last year that sets out the next steps around pesticide commitments.

The noble Earl, Lord Caithness, asked about bracken—

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

The noble Lord, Lord Gascoigne, and others talked about beavers. I am really pleased that we have been able to set out our approach to the wild release and management of beavers in England. Beavers can bring enormous benefits, and I am pleased that we have management tools in place so that they are in the right place and can be managed properly.

The noble Lord, Lord Grayling, talked about bottom trawling, and other noble Lords asked about it, too. The noble Lord asked whether we would complete the previous Government’s work on this. At the moment, we are considering our next steps to manage bottom trawling, along with other fishing methods, where it could damage MPA features or benthic habitats, in the context of our domestic and international nature conservation obligations. We are keen to carry on working closely with fisheries and marine stakeholders, as well as environmentalists, as we develop future plans for fisheries and the marine environment.

The noble Lord, Lord Grayling, asked about the impact of the EU reset on fisheries and environmental standards. I cannot talk about what we are discussing on the EU reset, but, clearly, all these things are taken into consideration.

The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, also asked some questions around bottom trawling. The first two stages of the Marine Management Organisation’s offshore by-laws programme introduced by-laws in marine protected areas. Currently, our figures say that this protects 10.87% of English waters from bottom-towed fishing. Clearly, it is something that we need to be working on.

The noble Lord, Lord Grayling, asked about deforestation. We recognise the urgency of taking action to ensure that UK consumption of forestry commodities is not driving deforestation. I hope we will soon be setting out our approach to this.

A number of Members asked about green finance, particularly the noble Earl, Lord Courtown, and the noble Lord, Lord Roborough. We recognise the huge importance of mobilising private finance into nature’s recovery. We are doing a lot of work on this and will be grateful to work with noble Lords on suggestions for how we can move forward.

The noble Earl, Lord Courtown, mentioned the Cali Fund. We are working closely with businesses across a lot of sectors to see how we can take this forward.

There were a number of other questions, but I have only 10 seconds left. I want to say to the noble Baroness, Lady Helic, that I absolutely heard what she has been saying about hares. There needs to be consistency—we completely appreciate that.

The noble Baroness, Lady Willis, spoke about rewilding. We have our own rewilding project at home. I personally have seen the benefits that rewilding in the right place can bring. I end by saying that, two weeks ago, we found that we had curlews.

Committee adjourned at 5.02 pm.