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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to develop (a) fiscal and (b) regulatory frameworks to support (i) private and (ii) blended finance for large-scale rewilding and nature recovery projects in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland.

The UK Government is committed to scaling up private and blended finance for nature recovery and sustainable farming.

In England, we are actively working to strengthen regulatory frameworks for high-integrity nature markets. This includes a Call for Evidence (published 12 June) on clarifying demand from nature-dependent sectors, and a public consultation (27 April) on improving standards and oversight for carbon and nature markets. The deadline for submitting comment to the Call for Evidence is 7 August.

Environmental and agricultural policy are devolved matters. However, the UK and Devolved Governments are collaborating to ensure coherence across the UK, including through joint governance of the British Standards Institution’s UK Nature Investment Standards programme.