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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to set obligations for water companies and peatland owners in SSSI's to restore peatland on land they own, as recommended by the Climate Change Committee in their Policies for the Sixth Carbon Budget and Net Zero.

The England Peat Action Plan was published in May and provides an ambitious framework to improve the management and protection of peatlands, to ensure they are functioning healthily for the needs of wildlife, people and planet. We will work to ensure all our peatlands, not just deep or protected peat, are responsibly managed, or under restoration management.

In April we launched the Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme which intends to invest over £50 million by 2025 to fund the restoration of at least 35,000 hectares of degraded peatlands across England, including in Sites of Special Scientific Interest. The scheme is open to a range of groups and organisations, such as Non-Governmental Organisations, national parks and water companies. In Sites of Special Scientific Interest, landowners are required to manage the land effectively and appropriately to conserve the special features of the site.

In the England Peat Action Plan, we committed to continue to work with water companies to encourage their investment in peat restoration as a solution to water quality issues, and to meet the industry's net zero goals.

We will also publish a comprehensive Net Zero Strategy ahead of COP26, setting out the Government’s vision for transitioning to a net zero economy. This will outline our path to meet net zero by 2050, our Carbon Budgets and Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).