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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the purpose and benefits of legally-binding targets in meeting their biodiversity restoration obligations and objectives.

This Government is committed to delivering the species abundance, species extinction, and habitat creation and restoration targets in England set under the Environment Act.

The biodiversity targets Impact Assessment assessed the benefits and costs associated with the achievement of the Environment Act biodiversity targets, compared to setting no targets.

Biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate and this loss matters. The market does not fully account for the value of biodiversity to society and will, as a result, fail to adequately protect biodiversity without government intervention. Setting legally binding biodiversity targets has created a legal obligation to deliver policy outcomes which will drive action and behaviour change.

The total present value for the suite of biodiversity targets (habitat, species abundance, and species extinction) was estimated to be £28,576 million, with a net present social value (benefits less costs) of £20,862 million. These benefit estimates are likely to be conservative. A cautious approach was taken to avoid any double counting of the cultural benefits, and several benefits were not explicitly captured in the benefits assessment due to insufficient evidence and data limitations. This included flood regulation, water supply, sustainable food production and pollination.