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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to make sites below 0.5 hectares exempt from Biodiversity Net Gain.

The Government response to the ‘Improving biodiversity net gain for minor, medium and brownfield development’ consultation and the impact assessment will be published in due course.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published in May a working paper on site thresholds for planning purposes, including a potential new category of medium development. They are assessing the response to this working paper.