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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to strengthen protections for peatland from development in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.

Safeguarding peatland plays an important role in climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as maintaining and enhancing biodiversity.

The National Planning Policy Framework contains a very high level of protection against proposals which might affect peatlands. The Framework is clear that development plans should not identify proposals for new or extended sites for peat extraction, and that planning permission should not be granted for peat extraction from new or extended sites.

In relation to other forms of development that could affect peatland, the Framework sets out that development resulting in the loss or deterioration of irreplaceable habitats, including habitats with peat soils such as blanket bog and lowland fen, should be refused, unless there are wholly exceptional reasons and a suitable compensation strategy exists.