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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to his Interim statement on the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) rapid review, published on 30 January 2025, what steps he is taking to improve (a) environmental data and (b) indicators of change in the natural environment.

Defra’s Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment Programme (NCEA) is delivering a nationwide survey of England’s land, freshwater assets and coast; mapping the location, extent, and condition of our ecosystems. The outputs of the programme will improve environmental data and metrics, fill in evidence gaps and enable a ‘whole system’ picture of the state of our natural environment, providing a more complete view of nature at both a regional and national level.

Our Outcome Indicator Framework (OIF) presents an authoritative way to measure changes to our environment. It collates a comprehensive suite of measures, including data from the NCEA, which collectively describe environmental change. The OIF is continuously improved, bringing in new data sources or indicators where better data becomes available. For example, the indicator on concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the air was updated this year with a new metric that more accurately reflects both the indicator and the target being measured.