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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of the destruction of biodiversity and habitats on levels of emerging zoonotic diseases.

The Department has not yet made a full assessment of the link between the destruction of biodiversity and habitats on levels of emerging zoonoses. The recent 2019 IPBES Global Assessment Report on biodiversity and ecosystem services highlights this as a factor potentially exacerbating the emergence of infectious diseases in wildlife, domestic animals and people. However, the evidence base is incomplete and the links are complex. We are urgently reviewing this evidence, as well as working to identify other evidence, to enable us to take an informed view as soon as possible.