Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the efficacy of current planning legislation in limiting light pollution of the night skies in England.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The National Planning Policy Framework states that planning policies and decisions should “limit the impact of light pollution from artificial light on local amenity, intrinsically dark landscapes and nature conservation.”
The character of the area and the surrounding environment is already a material consideration about what will be considered an appropriate level of lighting for a development. This applies to both new housing and new commercial developments.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made on the impact of light pollution on the environment in areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and surrounding areas.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Our National Parks (NP) and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) have some of the best dark skies across Great Britain and attained some of the earliest dark sky designations in Europe. 53% of our darkest skies are in NPs and AONBs, demonstrating the vital role these places play, and seven of our NPs and AONBs have been internationally recognised for their dark skies and are managed in ways that conserve dark skies for the benefit of people and wildlife.
Defra has worked with other government departments to ensure that the National Planning Policy Framework is clear that policies and decisions should limit the impact of light pollution on local amenities, dark landscapes and nature conservation. We continue to work with partners including leading scientists to review the latest studies and ensure we continue to address key threats to biodiversity.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that any future planning frameworks minimise light pollution and protect the integrity of skies.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The National Planning Policy Framework is already clear that policies and decisions should limit the impact of light pollution on local amenity, dark landscapes and nature conservation. As set out in the December NPPF consultation, this Government will consult on a wider review of the Framework later this year.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
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 monitors the impact of artificial light levels on wildlife in (a) Merseyside and (b) the UK.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Our legally binding target to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030 underlines our ambition to protect wildlife across all areas of the UK, including Merseyside.
Artificial light offers valuable benefits for safety and amenity. Defra has funded or co-funded national and international assessments of drivers of change on insects and wider biodiversity such as the global IPBES Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production. This report notes that the effects of artificial light in general on nocturnal insects may be growing.
Defra has worked with other government departments to ensure that the National Planning Policy Framework is clear that policies and decisions should limit the impact of light pollution on local amenities, dark landscapes and nature conservation. Our National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty have some of the best dark skies across Great Britain and attained some of the earliest designations in Europe. Seven of our parks have secured protected dark sky status and we are committed to conserving and celebrating this wonderful experience for all.
HM Government has not made any specific assessment of the impacts of light pollution on insect (or wider wildlife) population trends, but we will continue to work with partners including leading scientists to review the latest studies and ensure we continue to address key threats to biodiversity.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities about the impact of light pollution on insect populations; and what steps the Government is taking to reduce light pollution in (a) urban, (b) suburban and (c) rural areas.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Artificial light offers valuable benefits for safety and amenity. Defra has worked with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to ensure that the National Planning Policy Framework is clear that policies and decisions should limit the impact of light pollution on local amenity, dark landscapes and nature conservation. Our National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty have some of the best dark skies across Great Britain and attained some of the earliest designations in Europe. Seven of our parks have secured protected dark sky status and we are committed to conserving and celebrating this wonderful experience for all.
Defra has funded or co-funded national and international assessments of drivers of change on insects and wider biodiversity such as the global IPBES Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production. This report notes the effects of artificial light in general on nocturnal insects may be growing.
HM Government has not made any specific assessment of the impacts of light pollution or changes in spectrum on insect population trends. We will continue to work closely with researchers, NGOs and across HM Government to improve our understanding of the impacts of light pollution
Protecting insects is a priority, and we are taking action to support them and the wider natural environment of which they are a vital component. Our legally binding target to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030 underlines our ambition.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Dark Skies entitled Ten Dark Sky policies for the Government, published on 9 December 2020, if he will take steps to implement the policies in that report.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises that light pollution may have an impact on people, affecting their health and wellbeing, as well as the environment. We have put in place a range of measures to ensure that light pollution is managed effectively. These include controls in the planning system, the statutory nuisance regime, and improvements in street lighting.
Defra has worked with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to ensure that the National Planning Policy Framework is clear that planning decisions should limit the impact of light pollution on local amenity, dark landscapes and nature conservation. The statutory nuisance regime requires that local authorities have a duty to take reasonably practicable steps to investigate complaints of artificial light emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to human health or a nuisance.
The management of street lighting in England is the responsibility of local highway authorities. Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highways in their charge, including street lighting. Central Government has no powers to override local decisions in these matters or intervene in these kinds of local issues.
The Department for Transport recognises that light pollution (and excessive or wasteful use of lighting) can pose some social, economic and environmental problems. We also encourage local authorities to consider best practice when making decisions about lighting on their networks. Advice is available from the UK Lighting Board:https://ukrlg.ciht.org.uk/media/12302/well-lit-highways-24-may-2013-clean.pdf.
Our National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty have some of the best dark skies, and attained some of the earliest official Dark Skies designations, in Europe. Seven of our parks have secured protected dark sky status, and we are committed to conserving and celebrating this wonderful experience for all.
The Government considers the existing measures are sufficient to manage the problems caused by artificial light and there are no current plans to revise them. Defra also continues to review emerging evidence on the impacts of light pollution on biodiversity.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent estimate she has made of the total funds to be allocated for Unboxed: Creativity in the UK.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK is an ambitious programme of ten major multi-site and digital creative projects. The programme objectives are to bring people together and celebrate our collective and unique offer to the world. To deliver this, UNBOXED is taking the projects to over 80 places across the UK which have not generally staged such events in the past, all for free.
This programme aims to deliver a wide range of social, cultural and economic benefits which will be independently assessed and a report will be published in early 2023. In particular, the programme will help contribute to people’s happiness and wellbeing across the UK through taking part in and enjoying world-class cultural events, and help support the creative sector’s recovery from the pandemic through employment opportunities and new partnerships. It will demonstrate innovative uses of technology, drive up engagement with science and technology, and showcase the very best of the UK’s creativity to the world.
These benefits are already starting to be realised. For example, thousands of people have enjoyed ‘About Us’, a spectacular light and music production in Paisley, Londonderry, Caernarfon and Luton. Fifty young people are working on ‘Storytrails’, and hundreds of young people are contributing creative work to ‘Tour de Moon’. ‘Green Spaces Dark Skies’ has invited 20,000 people to carry lights in areas of outstanding natural beauty across the UK to create a magical light show. There is an extensive learning and participation programme which includes hundreds of lesson plans, workshops, school trips and other learning resources inspired by the ten projects.
The total budget for UNBOXED is £120 million, of which £98 million has been allocated to DCMS, and the remainder made available to the Devolved Administrations via the Barnett Formula (led by HM Treasury).
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish a break down of expenditure by Creative Wales on each commissioned event taking place in Wales including (a) GALWAD, (b) About Us, (c) Green Space, Dark Skies, (d) StoryTrails and (e) Dreamachine, as part of the Unboxed festival.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK is delivered at arm’s length from the government by a subsidiary of the Organising Committee of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, alongside a strategic delivery body appointed by each of the devolved administrations. Creative Wales, the delivery body acting on behalf of the Welsh Government, is responsible for commissioning GALWAD, Wales’s lead UNBOXED project.
As well as GALWAD, four more UNBOXED projects will present work in Wales: About Us, Green Space Dark Skies, StoryTrails and Dreamachine. These have been funded by the UK Government. Creative Wales is providing general advice and support to those projects in Wales. The individual commission values for the projects funded by HM Government have not been published at this time, but will be released in due course. The first UNBOXED project, About Us, visited Caernarfon earlier this month, where it was seen by around 16,000 people.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the contribution of the night lighting specified in newbuild housing on (1) greenfield, and (2) brownfield, developments to preserve dark skies.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The National Planning Policy Framework makes it clear that planning policies and decisions should limit the impact of light pollution on local amenity, dark landscapes and nature conservation, including where there may be impacts on wildlife and ecosystems. This should be considered by local authorities when they are assessing proposals for new housing on both greenfield and brownfield sites.
The Framework is supported by guidance that emphasises the importance of getting the right light in the right place at the right time and helps local planners and developers to design in ways of avoiding glare and intrusion. The guidance also encourages local planning authorities to engage with all relevant bodies and interested parties who may feel affected by a particular development proposal.
Additionally, the Government’s 25-Year Environment Plan includes a commitment to cut all forms of pollution and ease the pressure on the environment, including ensuring that light pollution is managed effectively.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the evidence of the impact of urban light pollution on (1) migrating birds, (2) resident birds, and (3) astronomy; and what plans they have to reducing the adverse effects of light pollution.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Defra has published or contributed to a range of assessments of the impact of artificial light on insects and wider biodiversity, as well as global and national assessments of the drivers of biodiversity loss more generally.
There has been no systematic research on or appraisal of the effects of urban lighting on migratory or resident birds. There is some evidence that artificial lighting can assist nocturnal feeding for some species under certain circumstances and prolong activity of birds beyond their normal periods. More significantly, there is evidence that shows strong light sources can disorient birds in flight and lead to direct mortality due to collisions with the light sources, their associated structures, and the ground.
In particular research suggests that artificial light can have an adverse effect on migratory birds’ ability to undertake long distance migrations. Birds attracted to light are not only at risk of death or injury due to collision with buildings and other structures, but are also at risk of exhaustion, starvation, or predation.
However, neither national nor global research has identified artificial light as a significant threat to UK bird populations. The UK’s recent report to the EU under Article 12 of the Birds Directive identified a medium threat to storm petrels from ‘attraction to and incineration by flares from oil platforms and rigs.
Government officials have met with relevant stakeholders including the Commission for Dark Skies but have not made an assessment of the impact of light pollution on astronomy.
The National Planning Policy Framework sets out how the possible ecological impacts of artificial light should be considered in the planning system. It makes clear that policies and decisions should limit the impact of light pollution on local amenity, dark landscapes, and nature conservation, including where there may be impacts on wildlife and ecosystems. Defra has contributed to associated guidance published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.