Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to encourage ecological diversity along the alignments of motorways and railways.

Highways England published a Biodiversity Plan in June 2015 that sets out how the organisation will protect and enhance biodiversity on its estate which includes the 18,000 hectares associated with the motorway network. The Road Investment Strategy states that by 2020, Highways England must deliver no net loss of biodiversity.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/biodiversity-plan

Network Rail is obliged to develop plans to protect and enhance the natural environment under the Rail Investment Strategy, which outlines the Department’s railway activity priorities from April 2014 to March 2019.