Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including major transport projects progressed through the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project regime within the mandatory biodiversity gain objective provided for in the Environment Bill.

The 25 Year Environment Plan committed to seek to embed ‘environmental net gain’ principle for development, including housing and infrastructure. There are a number of ways in which this could be implemented and it is important that we work with stakeholders to develop an appropriate approach. We will be consulting on further details in due course.