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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to adopt a national hedgerow planting and restoration target equivalent to that of the national tree planting target.

HM Government does not currently have plans to adopt a national hedgerow planting and restoration target equivalent to that of the national tree planting target.

We are required by the Environment Act 2021 to set at least one long-term biodiversity target, in addition to our target to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030. This target, and others set under the Act, will help target the causes of decline and drive actions to deliver nature recovery.

We will also be setting out our pathways to meet these targets in the Environmental Improvement Plan due in 2023. To meet our species abundance target we will need to create more, better joined up habitats, which will include hedgerows.