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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help (a) protect and (b) expand England's protected landscapes.

We have recently set out in our Environmental Improvement Plan that we will protect our protected landscapes by investing in a new National Landscapes Partnership, developing a Protected Landscapes outcomes framework, providing guidance to strengthen Protected Landscapes’ management plans and issuing guidance on the strengthened biodiversity duty. We will extend our protected landscapes by continuing assessments to designate two new AONBs and two AONB extensions and using the All-England mapping tool to identify landscapes to improve nature and access.