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 implications for her policies of the Red List Index for England for species extinction risk.

There is no single way to measure the health of our biodiversity. That is why we have set four legally binding targets to drive and measure improvements in nature recovery in England. These targets are: to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030; then to reverse declines by 2042; to reduce the risk of species extinction by 2042; and to restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat, also by 2042. Our goal is that the species abundance target will drive an overall increase in population sizes, and the species extinction risk target will promote the recovery of the rarest or fast declining species, while preventing species at a lesser threat risk from declining further.

We have set out our plan and policies to deliver our species extinction and other biodiversity targets in the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP23) published 31 January 2023. The EIP23 revises the 25 Year Environment Plan as part of our obligations under the Environment Act.

We, and our agencies, continue to work with partners to recover our threatened species. Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme supports the recovery of threatened and declining species in partnership with a number of stakeholder organisations. In 2022/23, Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme is targeting 215 species across 95 projects. Through its Species Recovery Programme so far, Natural England has funded projects for species including curlew, wart biter cricket, lady’s slipper orchid, and red-backed shrike.