Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much and what proportion of peatland assessed as degraded is (a) lowland farmland in the Fens,(b) other lowland cropland, (c) grassland, (d) modified heather dominated upland, (e) woodland and (f) land used for peatland extraction; and what proportion of carbon emissions is produced by each category.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The England Peat Map (EPM) does not classify peatlands by land-management definitions or directly test peat health. It provides a detailed national map of peat extent and depth, vegetation and land cover, upland drainage channels, and bare peat—features that are strong indicators of condition.
The Department’s statement that “around 80% of England’s peatlands are in dry and degraded states” reflects widely accepted UK-wide estimates and is consistent with analysis of the EPM. This figure (80%) is cited by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in its UK Peatland Strategy and Commission of Inquiry on Peatlands. It is also referenced by the Office for National Statistics. The figure was neither produced by Natural England nor derived from the EPM. However, analysis of the EPM does show that around 80% of England’s peatlands are associated with vegetation and land use cover associated with drier habitats, such as bare peat, arable land, and heather-dominated vegetation.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the press release entitled England’s peatlands mapped for first time in major step towards their recovery, published on 12 May 2025, whether her Department's assessment of the proportion of peatland that is degraded was based on (a) land management definitions and (b) testing the health of peat.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The England Peat Map has not assessed peatland as degraded or not and so cannot determine the proportions of degraded peatland in each category mentioned.
Work is currently ongoing to incorporate England Peat Map outputs into the Greenhouse Gas Inventory, which will help assess the carbon emissions from England’s peatlands.