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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 16 July 2018 to Question 163204 on Wetlands: Conservation, whether local authorities are required to consider alternative solutions when determining a planning proposal with potential damaging effects on a Ramsar site.

It is government policy that competent authorities need to make sure that their assessment of the impacts of plans and projects takes into account the full range of Ramsar interests for which the listed or proposed site has been designated and the site’s vulnerabilities to any effects of the proposed development.

Where an adverse effect on the integrity of a Ramsar site cannot be ruled out, alone or in combination with other plans and projects, the competent authority can only consent, in the absence of feasible alternatives, on grounds of overriding public interest and where compensatory measures are secured.