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 (a) halt and (b) reverse species decline in the UK.

This Government is committed to restoring nature and achieving our legally binding species targets. These include targets to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030, reverse these declines by at least 10% by 2042 when compared with 2030, and to reduce the risk of species extinction by 2042.

To achieve these targets, we have ramped up action to support nature recovery. We are investing £60 million over the next three years into the Species Recovery Programme, marking the largest ever Government investment in directly supporting threatened species. A further £30 million will be dedicated to fund species recovery on the national forest estate. Earlier this year beavers were released in Somerset and Cornwall following the Government’s landmark decision last year to allow the legal reintroduction of beavers into the wild in England since they were hunted to extinction around 400 years ago and we recently approved £1m of additional funding to explore a reintroduction programme for golden eagles in England. The Government has also announced the largest nature friendly farming budget in history, with £11.8 billion to be spent across this Parliament.