Asked by: Baroness Parminter (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made regarding the classification and implementation of Other Effective Area-Based Measures; and whether these measures will contribute towards their 30by30 target.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
HM Government is committed to protecting 30% of land and sea in the UK by 2030 (30by30). We consulted on our approach to 30by30 in the Nature Recovery Green Paper earlier this year and are now working at pace to develop the assessment criteria, in line with international standards, that will inform what land will count towards 30by30.
We expect land recognised as Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs), meeting our assessment criteria, to play a part in achieving this ambitious commitment. For OECMs to count, we know that they need to be effectively managed and deliver positive outcomes for biodiversity. We continue to explore next steps for identification and classification of OECMs in England.
Asked by: Baroness Parminter (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish the final Environmental Principles Policy Statement.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Parliamentary scrutiny of the draft Policy Statement concluded in June. Consideration of the feedback received from Parliament is still ongoing.
Asked by: Baroness Parminter (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to engage business, civil society and land management stakeholders in the preparation of the first annual environmental improvement plan under the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra engages with business, civil society and land management partners on an ongoing basis, both on individual policies and on the development of the Environmental Improvement Plan as a whole. This engagement will continue over the coming months.
Asked by: Baroness Parminter (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to publish in full the recommendations at a species level from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee arising from the 7th Quinquennial Review of Schedules 5 and 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, submitted to Ministers on 19 April.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
JNCC’s seventh Quinquennial Review report provides the Secretary of State with independent scientific advice on proposed changes to Schedules 5 and 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act. We are required to publish recommendations and advice received from JNCC, before both Houses of Parliament under Section 24(3) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act. We will consider the recommendations carefully and the Government’s response before aiming to publish JNCC’s advice later this year.
Asked by: Baroness Parminter (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to deliver on their commitment in the Net Zero Strategy to enable people to make informed choices about (1) the goods and products they buy, and (2) services they use, through exploring how products could be labelled with their (a) emission intensity, and (b) environmental impact.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government continues to evaluate the use of environmental labelling, with a view to stimulating demand for better quality items and services. This includes exploring the evidence base for environmental labelling within food production and disposal. Further, the Government has committed to introduce mandatory water-efficiency labelling to encourage consumers to buy products which avoid water wastage and reduce energy demand for heating the water. The Government is also exploring the use of labels that inform consumers of the durability, repairability and recyclability of products.
Asked by: Baroness Parminter (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to publish their plan for autism research, as outlined in the National strategy for autistic children, young people and adults, published on 22 July 2021.
Answered by Lord Kamall
We plan to publish the Autism Research Action Plan in summer 2022.
Asked by: Baroness Parminter (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the feasibility of a 'stepped care' system for autistic people to identify and address new support needs in a timely manner.
Answered by Lord Kamall
No specific assessment has been made. However, in 2019 the public call for evidence to inform the development of the autism strategy sought views on autistic people’s access to post-diagnosis support as an element of a stepped care system. This found that 34% of autistic respondents and 46% of carer respondents said they did not receive support after diagnosis.
In 2021/22, we provided £31 million to improve community services for autistic people and people with a learning disability services. This included £7 million to test and implement timely, quality autism diagnosis and post-diagnosis pathways. Additionally, we are investing £69 million in 2022/2023 to prevent avoidable admissions and improve community support for autistic people and people with a learning disability.
Asked by: Baroness Parminter (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of Wildlife and Countryside Link’s estimates of the resources required for successful implementation of Local Nature Recovery Strategies.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government has committed to funding all new burdens on Local Authorities arising from the Environment Act. This includes those relating to the preparation of Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs). We have considered Wildlife and Countryside Link’s estimates, alongside the feedback from the 5 LNRS pilots that finished in May 2021.
Following the spending review settlement, Defra is working through spending plans for the next three years, including by working closely with local Government organisations to determine the level of additional capacity required to implement the Act effectively.
Defra will share further details of the resources that will be made available for implementing Local Nature Recovery Strategies in the coming months.
Asked by: Baroness Parminter (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that Local Nature Recovery Strategies (1) protect, and (2) enhance, urban nature, in order to increase opportunities for people to benefit from access to nature near where they live and work.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Local Nature Recovery Strategies are a new, England-wide system of spatial strategies that will 1) identify areas of existing importance for nature, including in urban areas, and 2) establish priorities and map proposals for specific actions to drive nature's recovery and provide wider environmental benefits.
The coronavirus pandemic has underlined the important benefits to public health and wellbeing from access to nature and green spaces. The Government expects that public authorities will wish to use the process of creating their Local Nature Recovery Strategy to also identify opportunities to increase access to nature whilst supporting its recovery.
Asked by: Baroness Parminter (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that adequate funding is available for local authorities to meet their general duty to facilitate their Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 biodiversity duty obligations, as updated by sections 102 and 103 of the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Government has committed to funding all new burdens on local authorities arising from the Environment Act, including those due to the biodiversity duty on public authorities, Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) and Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs).
The intention of the strengthened duty, though, is not to oblige public authorities to incur additional costs, but for them to consider seriously how they can improve biodiversity through the exercise of their functions. We anticipate that the principal way in which local authorities discharge their biodiversity duty will be through the actions taken to deliver mandatory BNG or LNRSs. We also expect that, in considering any additional action they can take above and beyond BNG and LNRSs, local authorities can consider ways to benefit biodiversity in a cost-neutral manner and work with other sectors; we will provide guidance to help with this.
Defra recently announced £4 million to help Local Planning Authorities, and other local authorities with planning oversight, to prepare for BNG which will become mandatory in November 2023. The funding will help Local Planning Authorities expand ecologist resource and upskill ecologist teams.