Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Transport on the maintenance of bridleways to reduce the number of horses using public roads.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has not had any recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Transport on the maintenance of bridleways in relation to reducing the number of horses using public roads.
Local highway authorities are responsible for the management and maintenance of public rights of way, including bridleways, and for ensuring they are kept free from obstructions. They are required to prepare and maintain a Rights of Way Improvement Plan. These plans include assessments of local network conditions and plans to improve these for all users and are publicly available on local authority websites.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to introduce animal welfare standards for imports to ensure that products produced in ways that are illegal in the UK cannot enter the UK market.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All agri-food products must comply with our import requirements in order to be placed on the UK market. This includes ensuring imported meat products have been slaughtered to animal welfare standards equivalent to our domestic standards.
The Government shares the public’s high regard for the high welfare standards we have in this country. As set out in the UK’s Trade Strategy, Defra will not lower food standards and will uphold high animal welfare standards.
Defra recognises concerns about methods of production which are not permitted in the UK. While production methods vary in line with different climates, diseases and other contextual reasons, Defra will always consider whether overseas produce has an unfair advantage and any impact that may have. Where necessary, the Government will be prepared to use the full range of powers at our disposal to protect our most sensitive sectors.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of recreational shooting on the economies of rural areas.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Rural areas offer significant potential for growth and are important to our economy, contributing over £259 billion a year to England alone.
Defra has not made a formal assessment on contribution of recreational shooting to the rural economy; however, we know the rural economy is diverse with 86% of rural businesses unrelated to agriculture, forestry or fishing.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance the Government provides on ensuring transparent and long-term maintenance of restored habitats.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has published extensive guidance on what should be covered by legal agreements for biodiversity net gain, including detail on habitat monitoring and who is responsible. There is also a set of habitat management and monitoring templates which should be used to set out how and when habitats will be monitored and reported on.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what mechanism is in place to funnel Biodiversity Net Gain funding from developers into county-wide nature recovery partnerships, such as the Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Partnership.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Land managers, including Local Nature Recovery partnerships (LNRPs), can sell biodiversity units to those developers who cannot achieve 10% Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) onsite and need to go off-site.
The BNG metric also provides an incentive to achieve off-site biodiversity gains in areas of strategic significance, as set out in the relevant Local Nature Recovery Strategy.
The Local Investment in Natural Capital programme, funded by Defra and delivered by the Environment Agency, has provided grants of over £1 million to five local and combined authorities to create a pipeline of investable projects and develop capacity and capability to crowd in finance from private sources, including from developers. Learnings from this programme will provide guidance to Local Nature Recovery Strategies in these areas on how best to attract and allocate BNG funding and will be available to all LNRPs upon the conclusion of the programme in 2026.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government plans to require planning authorities to publish annual reports on how off-site Biodiversity Net Gain contributions by developers have been a) spent, b) their location, and c) ecological result of habitat d) creation or e) restoration.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Act 2021 established a strengthened biodiversity duty, which requires local planning authorities to publish a biodiversity report at least every five years, setting out how they have complied with the duty. As part of this report, local planning authorities are required to include actions they have taken under biodiversity net gain obligations, and information from the biodiversity gain plans they have approved. The first reporting period must end no later than 1 January 2026 with reports published within 12 weeks.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure that (a) statutory Biodiversity Net Gain initiatives are implemented fully and (b) local authorities are provided with sufficient resources to monitor long-term habitat improvements.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local planning authorities (LPAs) are provided with funding for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), including £10 million for this current financial year. The Government also funds the Planning Advisory Service to help LPAs meet their BNG obligations.
LPAs can charge for monitoring activity through the legal agreements into which the developer enters .
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance her Department has issued to businesses on how they can contribute to local habitat restoration projects.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has published biodiversity net gain (BNG) guidance on how a business can get involved with providing biodiversity units to developers who need to go off-site for BNG. This can either be through selling units independently on land owned, or working with partners to create habitat banks. Land managers can also combine biodiversity units with other environmental payments for the same piece of land.
In addition, Projects for Nature connects corporate donations with government-screened nature recovery projects across England, which can support the delivery of our statutory biodiversity targets.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether there will be simplified a) permit systems or b) funding mechanisms provided to streamline i) community groups, ii) small landowners or iii) local conservation networks' involvement in habitat creation.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are setting the conditions for more private investment to flow into domestic nature recovery, including by exploring how we can further incentivise the private sector to pay for nature’s services - through a Call For Evidence on Expanding the role of the private sector in nature recovery; and ensuring the integrity of UK nature markets by sponsoring the British Standards Institution to develop a suite of UK Nature Investment Standards.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help support farmers and landowners in West Berkshire to participate in the Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) was published in October 2025. Responsible authorities have been steered to involve farmers and landowners in preparation of their LNRS. LNRSs will help farmers and landowners to choose which agri-environment scheme options are suitable for their land. However, having land mapped in an LNRS does not compel farmers or landowners to make changes to how they use or manage their land – this will continue to be their choice.