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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps her Department has taken to meet its statutory targets on environment protection; and if she will make a statement.

The Environment Act 2021’s statutory cycle of monitoring, planning and reporting ensures that Government will take early, regular steps to achieve targets and can be held to account with regular scrutiny from the Office for Environmental Protection and Parliament. The statutory cycle to drive short term progress sets out that:

1. the Government must have an Environmental Improvement Plan which sets out the steps it intends to take to improve the environment, and review it at least every five years;

2. the Government must report on progress towards achieving targets every year, the most recent of which can be found here - 25 Year Environment Plan: progress reports - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and

3. the Office for Environmental Protection is established and provides independent scrutiny of delivery.

Building on our Environment Act 2021 and its ambitious long-term targets, our Environmental Improvement Plan will soon set out the comprehensive action this Government will take to reverse the decline in nature, achieve our net zero goals and deliver cleaner air and water.