Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effectiveness of conservation covenants for nature and wildlife.

The Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan commits us to assess the demand and potential for conservation covenants to secure long-term benefits for nature and to work with stakeholders to review and take forward the Law Commission proposals for a statutory scheme in England.

The Law Commission had reviewed the evidence for their use and effectiveness in other countries and undertook a consultation exercise in 2013 to determine if they could be effective and should be introduced here. It concluded that conservation covenants had the potential to deliver lasting conservation benefits for nature and wildlife, as well as other outcomes. A copy of its report can be found at https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/conservation-covenants

The Government opened a consultation on 22 February on conservation covenants. The consultation seeks views on the potential effectiveness of covenants in securing benefits for nature. We will review the responses once the consultation closes. The consultation can be found at

https://consult.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-management/conservation-covenants/.