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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made with the roll-out of Local Nature Recovery Strategies.

The Government is working to put in place the key measures necessary for preparation of Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) to begin across England. We are developing regulations which will set out the process that must be followed in preparing a LNRS and guidance on what each Strategy should contain. Development of these two documents is being informed by over 400 responses we received to our consultation which closed in November as well as lessons learnt during our five LNRS pilots (report published here and attached).

We are working to identify the geographies that each LNRS will cover and appropriate "responsible authorities" to lead the preparation of each one. We have had very positive initial engagement with potential responsible authorities across the country, building towards agreeing LNRS areas and securing formal appointments later this year.

To enable these formal appointments, we are developing our financial offer for responsible authorities to ensure that they have sufficient resource to deliver their new role. We are also compiling the nationally-held data and information that we will provide to each responsible authority to help them prepare their LNRS.