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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help protect the habitats of song birds in the UK.

This Government is committed to halting the decline in species abundance by 2030, through a world-leading and legally binding target under the Environment Act. We recently published a Green Paper which will look at how we can drive the delivery of that target, including through our sites and protections for species. Other actions under the Environment Act are likely to support song bird recovery, such as biodiversity net gain for development including nationally significant infrastructure projects.

We have taken significant action to make new space for nature, creating over 260,000 hectares of new priority habitat since 2010. This has been supported by policies such as the Nature for Climate Fund, worth over £750 million and the Green Recovery Challenge Fund, and will be further supported by the establishment of the Nature Recovery Network.

Our Agri-environment schemes continue to be the principal means of improving habitat for farmland birds (which includes many species considered to be songbirds) and the wider environment on farmland in England. We are introducing three environmental land management schemes: the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Local Nature Recovery, and Landscape Recovery. These schemes will pay for activities to create, manage and restore habitats, connecting isolated habitats to form networks, and species management, all of which have the potential to benefit songbirds.