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 increase biodiversity in the Midlands.

Across England, the Government is investing in protected sites, restoring wildlife-rich habitats and supporting species recovery.

Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) provide legal protection for our most important wildlife and natural features in England. There are over 4000 SSSIs in England, covering around 7% of the land area in England. The East and West Midlands are home to some of the finest, with 848 of these sites covering an area of 190,205 hectares.

The Government also provides substantial public funding for managing protected sites and restoring wildlife habitats, spending £2.9 biilion on agri-environment schemes in England through our seven-year Rural Development Programme. Schemes are tailored to the specific biodiversity interests in the Midlands through our local targeting statements[1].

The Government supports species recovery through its agri-environment schemes and partnership projects. Natural England is working with conservation organisations and landowners on the Back from the Brink programme, a £7.7 million partnership funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and others to put over 100 priority species on the road to recovery. Two Back from the Brink projects are in the Midlands, both led by Butterfly Conservation. The Limestone’s Living Legacies project is restoring a network of limestone grassland sites across the Cotswolds. A second project in Rockingham Forest, Northamptonshire, is restoring and managing woodland to aid the local recovery of vulnerable species and the reintroduction of the Chequered Skipper, which last year become the first previously extinct butterfly to have bred successfully in an English woodland for more than 40 years.

Our Bees’ Needs Champions Awards has recognised a number of councils and community groups from across the Midlands for their own exemplary work to support pollinators.

Our 25 Year Environment Plan marked a step-change in ambition for the natural environment and we are determined to build on these successes.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/countryside-stewardship-statements-of-priorities