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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish a (a) management plan on protecting farmland in the context of his Department's decision to provide Eurasian beavers with legal protections in England and (b) long-term strategy for beavers.

On 2 September 2022, Defra and Natural England published joint guidance on GOV.UK on managing beavers and their impacts, where this is necessary. The guidance sets out a step-wise approach to management and provides information on actions that can be undertaken to protect farmland without a licence such as removing new dams and excluding beavers from certain areas. Natural England has also published information on how landowners can apply for licences to undertake other action, including removal of more established dams. This management regime provides effective options to managing potential issues with beavers, and is intended to minimise the burdens on land managers and farmers, ensuring the process is streamlined and easy to access.

We continue to develop our approach to the release of beaver, including ensuring that any applications to release the species consider and mitigate risks to farmland as appropriate, and that these projects have a local officer to provide advice and support to landowners.

A public consultation was held last year on the national approach to beaver reintroduction and management in England and the summary of responses has been published on GOV.UK. Recognising the range of responses and feedback received, we will continue to undertake further work with Natural England to develop our approach to the reintroduction of beaver in England. Further information, including on criteria for wild releases, will be published in due course.