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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to ensure that Sites of Specific Scientific Interest remain protected from housing development.

Sites of Special Scientific Interest are afforded statutory protection through the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Additionally, the National Planning Policy Framework clarifies that development on land within or outside a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and which is likely to have an adverse effect on it (either individually or in combination with other developments), should not normally be permitted. The only exception is where the benefits of the development in the location proposed clearly outweigh both its likely impact on the features of the site that make it of special scientific interest, and any broader impacts on the national network of Sites of Special Scientific Interest.