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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of reintroducing beavers on landscape recovery and natural flood management.

This is a devolved matter, and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

Government has assessed the impact of reintroducing beavers on landscape recovery and natural flood management. This includes an evidence review of the impacts of beavers on the natural and human environment in England.

The evidence shows that beavers can transform landscapes, improve water quality, reduce the risk of flooding, increase biodiversity, and increase climate resilience in landscapes. At the river catchment scale, beaver activity has the potential to benefit agricultural land through flood attenuation, slowing the flow of water and maintaining baseflow. Beavers also contribute to the Environment Improvement Plan objectives through wetland creation and restoration.

Beavers can both positively and negatively impact agricultural land, with factors like topography, soil structure and texture, hydrology, type of agriculture and proximity to watercourses affecting the likelihood of impacts.