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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the environmental effects of the development of onshore wind power.

Wind power will make a significant contribution to the UK meeting its renewable energy and climate change targets. However, development has to be in the right place. Government planning guidance therefore makes it clear that the need for renewable energy should not automatically override concerns about local impacts. When applications for wind turbines are determined, the impacts on matters such as ecology, noise, landscape, heritage and amenity are considered.