Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of planning protections afforded to Local Wildlife Sites in the in the update to the National Planning Policy Framework.

The powers secured through the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 would allow Strategic Environmental Assessment and Environmental Impact Assessment to be replaced with a new framework of Environmental Outcomes Reports.

The government is committed to securing better environmental outcomes alongside securing the development we need and will consider how best to reform environmental assessment with this objective in mind. Alongside, reforming building regulations, we will carefully consider how Environmental Outcomes Reports can be used to support our wider carbon reduction targets. In the meantime, the current legislation on environmental assessment and its supporting guidance continues to apply.