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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that the gap in legal protection for hedgerows because of the transition from basic payments to the Environmental Land Management scheme that will arise on 31 December 2023 will be filled on 1 January 2024.

We recognise the importance and value of hedgerows, which have a key role in conserving and enhancing biodiversity, tackling climate change and enhancing our countryside. As we move away from legacy EU Common Agricultural Policy arrangements, we are committed to ensuring our high environmental standards are maintained and that we have the right framework in place. Whilst the majority of hedgerows are on agricultural land, approximately a fifth are not. It is important, therefore, that all landowners recognise their importance and do their bit to protect them.

The Hedgerows Regulations 1997 set legal protections for hedgerows in England and Wales outside of cross compliance. These existing regulations prohibit the removal of most countryside hedgerows (or parts of them) without first seeking approval from the local planning authority. It decides whether a hedgerow is ‘important’ and should not be removed because of its wildlife, landscape, historical or archaeological value. Alongside the Hedgerows Regulations, all wild birds, their eggs and their nests are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which prohibits killing, injuring or taking of wild birds or taking or damaging their eggs and nests. These regulations jointly provide important protections for most countryside hedgerows and for nesting wild birds.

In addition to these legislative protections, our new Environmental Land Management schemes will also continue to fund the improvement and management of hedgerows, in recognition of their historical, cultural and environmental value to our countryside.

We will be consulting shortly on what the regulatory arrangements for hedgerows should be after cross compliance ceases at the end of 2023 and how we can best continue to improve and protect hedgerows.