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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the enforcement of environmental protections on Sites of Special Scientific Interest in rural coastal areas; and what steps he is taking to help ensure timely investigation of alleged breaches of statutory protections on such sites.

Natural England works with Defra to highlight any gaps in the regulatory and enforcement regime for protected sites.

Natural England has a suite of regulatory remedies and enforcement sanctions (including civil and criminal) to address issues on protected sites. The aim is always to seek the prevention or remedy of harm and to ensure future compliance. This means that Natural England often seeks to achieve a voluntary agreement but where that cannot be achieved, or where the harm is very significant, Natural England acts swiftly using its regulatory or enforcement powers to remedy the situation.

The Corry Review of Defra’s regulatory landscape (April 2025) identified challenges in the effectiveness and consistency of environmental enforcement. Defra has committed to a programme of reforms to strengthen compliance and improve outcomes on the ground.