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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that the outcomes of biodiversity net gain are (a) monitored and (b) enforced.

The Government’s response to the net gain consultation, which was published last year, acknowledged the importance of effective monitoring and enforcement in securing meaningful gains for nature and communities.

The Environment Bill includes provisions for a public register of habitat improvement sites. This will provide an accessible public record of habitat enhancements undertaken outside the development site. This register will, as a minimum, detail the location of compensation sites, how many units and of what habitat types are created, and the planning reference of the development to which the units relate.

For delivery of habitats within development sites, planning application data is routinely published by local authorities and will provide key information about how new developments will achieve biodiversity net gain.

The Government does not propose to introduce new enforcement mechanisms for net gain; existing enforcement mechanisms in the planning system will be used. The exception to this is where habitats are secured by conservation covenants. In these cases responsibility for monitoring and enforcement would sit with the organisation that holds the covenant.