Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government the (1) number, and (2) value of grants issued from the Conservation and Enhancement Scheme in the last three years.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
For the financial years 2023/24 to 2025/26, the number of Conservation Enhancement Scheme (CES) grants issued, and their value is as follows:
Financial Year | New CES issued | Value |
2023/24 | 50 | £796,137 |
2024/25 | 45 | £1,925,180 |
2025/26 | 47 | £1,930,866 |
Total | 142 | £4,652,183 |
Notes:
1) Number issued includes direct land manager agreements and SSSI investigations. The latter establish what work may be required to support actions on SSSIs that may be supported through a subsequent CES agreement with the land manager.
2) Value – this is the total value spent on CES agreements in each year. Some of this value is for multi-year CES agreed in previous years.
3) Figures for 2025/26 are expected end of year figures. However, only around £130k of this is still to be agreed in January 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reasons why the Woodlands for Water project delivered 9 per cent of the target hectares of tree planting.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Woodlands for Water project, funded by Defra and delivered by the Riverscapes Partnership, ran from October 2021 to March 2025. At the end of the project, 288 hectares had been planted, with over 2,200 hectares of sites identified for planting. These are being pursued through other means, including through support from Rivers Trust and progressing planting through the Community Forests where appropriate.
Defra reduced funding to the project in financial year 2024/25 and the project is now closed.
Reasons for planting being below target include particular challenges around riparian planting, which typically involves small land parcels with multiple land managers alongside practical challenges of planting alongside linear features such as rivers.
We are continuing to support riparian planting through the England Woodland Creation Offer, which has stackable supplementary payments for woodlands that improve water quality, reduce the risk of flooding, and riparian buffers that improve water habitat. Our Water Environment Improvement Fund also supports targeted woodland creation for water benefits.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many statutory management notices have been issued regarding Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the last three years.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since 9 December 2022, Natural England has issued zero Section 28K Management Notices.
The number of pre-requisite Section 28J Management Schemes issued since 2022 is one (issued on 1 July 2024).
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the performance of ministers in fulfilling their duties under section 20 of the Environment Act 2021 regarding statements on bills containing new environmental law, and what consideration they have given to creating mechanisms to challenge incorrect or misleading statements.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In making a statement under the Environment Act 2021 Section 20, as with all other statements ministers make to either House, ministers are bound by the Ministerial Code which requires them to provide accurate and truthful information to Parliament.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
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 Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill on the UK's natural capital accounts.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) is being legislated under Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. The NRF will provide a more streamlined experience for developers and better outcomes for protected habitats and species.
The benefit of the NRF to the UK’s natural capital accounts will depend upon the specific Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) that are brought forward under its provisions. The requirement for an EDP to meet the overall improvement test before it can be made by the Secretary of State, supported by robust monitoring, reporting, and remediation safeguards, will ensure a positive impact.
An impact assessment for the Planning and Infrastructure Bill was published on 6 May 2025 and may be referred to for further details of the expected outcomes of the Bill.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 29 October 2024 (HC8963), how many local nature recovery strategies they expect to publish before the end of June, and what incentives have been given to local authorities to meet their expected timetable for publication.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Four Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) have already been published with many more expected in the coming months. The current ones are West of England, North Northamptonshire, Cornwall & Isles of Scilly and Isle of Wight.
Defra and Natural England are closely monitoring all remaining LNRS publication timescales. The Minister for Nature has written to all responsible authorities setting out her expectations around timely publication of their LNRS and transition to delivery. Officials are working closely with those few that are expecting to publish after December 2025 to seek assurance that their LNRSs will be published as soon as possible.
LNRSs will support responsible authorities, Defra group and local partners to make more strategic, informed decisions about nature recovery and planning for their area. Defra is in the process of confirming funding for this financial year to support the transition to leading and coordinating delivery of the LNRS for their area.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Hayman of Ullock on 10 September 2024 (HL567), and with reference to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) article Economic statistics classifications and developments in public sector finances: April 2025 published on 22 May, why they do not consider Malvern Hills Trust to be a public body, and how they reconcile their Answer with the decision by the ONS to classify the Malvern Hills Trust to the local government subsector.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
It is Defra’s understanding that the Malvern Hills Trust is not a public body. This is based on the Cabinet Office’s guide to the classification of public bodies, which includes a helpful but brief definition in these terms: ‘A public body is a formally established organisation that is publicly funded to deliver a public or government service, though not as a ministerial department. The term refers to a wide range of public sector entities.’
The 1884 Private Bill that established Malvern Hills Trust also does not suggest that it would be classified as a public body.
More information on what constitutes a public body can be accessed in the Cabinet Office guide, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/public-bodies-reform (copy attached).
Defra does not hold information on the Office for National Statistics’ classification of the Malvern Hills Trust.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether internal drainage boards are subject to a biodiversity duty, as set out in the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 and amended by section 102 of the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
It is Defra's position that Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs) are subject to the biodiversity duty, as set out in section 40(1) of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities (NERC) Act 2006 (as amended by section 102 of the Environment Act 2021). Defra’s view is that under the 2006 Act, IDBs are captured under section 40(4)(c) as public bodies and under 40(4)(d)(ii) as they are created or continued in existence by a public general Act (the Land Drainage Act 1991) which empowers the Secretary of State to establish them by Order.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Conservators of Ashdown Forest are considered to be a public authority.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Whether the Conservators of Ashdown Forest are considered a public authority depends on the specific legal context. There is no general or universal definition of a public authority in UK law. It may include any individual or organisation that carries out functions on behalf of the public or a particular section of the public. Where an organisation needs to understand if it is defined as a public authority in a particular context, it will need to seek its own independent legal advice.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many sites of special scientific interest in England were assessed in (1) 2021, (2) 2022, (3) 2023, and (4) 2024.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
On 1 April 2023 Natural England changed from a unit (or area)-based assessment and corresponding reporting process to one based on the features within each site, called Whole Feature Assessment. A feature is a habitat, species or geological characteristic for which the site is important.
More information is available here TIN216 Edition 2 Environment Act Interim Target for protected sites - TIN216 and a copy is attached.
As of March 2025, the proportion of SSSI features that had an up-to-date condition assessment in England is 31.6%
The breakdown of the number of assessments in England in each of those years was as follows:
2021- 939 assessments
2022- 781 assessments
2023- 591 assessments
2024- 921 assessments
The number of assessments in a year refers to either an assessment of a unit (pre-2023), or a feature (from 2023) on a site and not to a whole site. More than one unit or feature may be assessed on a site in a year, and the same site may have been visited in more than 1 year to monitor different units or features.