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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of whether the UK's National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty meet the standards for category 1 or 2 environmentally protected areas as set out by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

We consider that National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) in England are most closely aligned with the definition of category 5 protected areas (Protected Landscapes) as set out by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and they are identified as such in our national reports to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

In implementing the proposals set out in the Landscapes Review published in 2019 we intend to support our National Parks and AONBs to become exemplars of the IUCN’s category 5 landscapes.