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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 16 June 2020 to Question 57159 on Environment Protection, when he plans to embed the environmental principles detailed in Section 17 of the Environment Act 2021 into HM Treasury’s Green Book.

The Environment Act 2021 places a new legal duty on Ministers to have due regard to the environmental principles policy statement when making policy. The policy statement sets out how to interpret and proportionately apply the five environmental principles, to put the environment at the heart of policy across government. The duty came into force on 1 November 2023.

Application of the policy statement in appraisals is part of the Green Book process. The Green Book landing page on GOV.UK highlights the new legal duty and revised guidance on Enabling a Natural Capital Approach provides additional detail. The Green Book itself will be updated next year to reflect the duty.