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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 21 July 2026 to Question 18731 on Planning Permission: Biodiversity, what estimate she has made of the proportion of (a) all planning applications and (b) residential planning applications that will be subject to the biodiversity gain condition following implementation of the exemption for sites of 0.2 hectares or less.

The answer given to question 18731 still stands. The new exemptions came into force in August 2026, and government continues to monitor the numbers of planning applications subject to Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG). Planning portal data for September 2026 suggests that around 90% of planning applications were exempt from BNG.