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 Government's response of 26 January 2022 to the Environmental Audit Committee's Second Report, what recent steps have been taken to develop the proposed net gain assessments on trade.

Impact assessments for new Free Trade Agreements include both quantitative and qualitative assessments of the impacts on several aspects of the environment, including emissions, air and water quality, and biodiversity. The Government is working to improve the coverage and approach to assessing environmental impact assessments and in the early stages of exploring the feasibility of assessing net gain in trade.