Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to protect native species and wildlife in England.

This Government has set a world leading target to halt the decline in species by 2030, under the Environment Act 2021. This will drive action to recover native species, such as the hedgehog and red squirrel. My department will publish a Green Paper early this year which will look at how the regulatory framework can help drive the delivery of our 2030 target and reverse declines of species.

Our Environment Act establishes Local Nature Recovery Strategies which will help identify local biodiversity priorities in order to improve co-ordination of conservation. We are also taking action, through the net gain provisions in the Act, to support the role of new development in helping to protect, improve and create the habitat that our native species need to thrive.

We are creating a Nature Recovery Network across the country. At the core of the network will be our existing protected sites and existing areas of high value for biodiversity, which we will strengthen by creating and restoring new habitat to provide both the space and ecological connectivity across the country that we know species rely on to thrive. This will be supported by our new environmental land management schemes, which will deliver the Prime Minister’s 10 point plan commitment to create the equivalent of well over 30,000 football pitches of wildlife rich habitat.

In addition, we continue to invest in our native species. The £80 million Green Recovery Challenge Fund is enabling nature recovery across England, from North Northumberland to the tip of Cornwall. Through this funding, we have supported 159 projects, ranging from new 'insect pathways' in our countryside to tree planting projects in deprived urban areas.

We are also establishing an England Species Reintroductions which will bring together statutory bodies, experts and stakeholders to provide independent advice on potential species for conservation translocation and reintroduction in England.