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 implement provisions in the European Landscape Convention.

The United Kingdom ratified the European Landscape Convention in 2006. Its principles are reflected in Government and local policies, for example, that local communities are engaged in the setting of priorities and objectives for their local landscapes and that opportunities are sought to align conservation and landscape objectives for designated areas.

National Park and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Management Plans are an example of delivering on the convention’s principle of stronger alignment of conservation and landscape objectives for designated sites.

The right of communities to shape development in their areas through the production of Neighbourhood Development Plans, introduced through the Localism Act 2011, delivers on the convention’s principle that local communities should be engaged in the setting of priorities and objectives for their local landscapes.

The National Planning Policy Framework outlines strong protection of designated landscapes and the duty on decision-makers to consider landscape impacts in plan making and planning decisions. We consider it compliant with the convention.