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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to require local planning authorities to publish biodiversity net gain data and monitoring outcomes for developments in their area.

The Environment Act 2021 established a strengthened biodiversity duty, which requires local planning authorities to publish a biodiversity report at least every 5 years, setting out how they have complied with the duty. As part of this report, local planning authorities are required to include actions they have taken under biodiversity net gain obligations, and information from the biodiversity gain plans they have approved. The first reports must be published by 1 January 2026.