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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of local authorities who have drafted and implemented Biodiversity Action Plans.

Whilst local Biodiversity Action Plans can be a useful means of coordinating and communicating action on biodiversity, there is no formal requirement on local authorities to produce one and the Government does not keep records of the number they produce.

In 2020, the Government introduced new measures in the Environment Bill to establish Local Nature Recovery Strategies and provide a framework for the Nature Recovery Network. Local Nature Recovery Strategies are a new system of spatial strategies for nature, covering the whole of England. They are designed as tools to drive more coordinated, practical and focused action to help nature. All public authorities will be required to have regard to relevant strategies as part of a stronger duty on public authorities to conserve and enhance biodiversity.