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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress he has made on implementing the Government's 25 Year Environment Plan.

In June the Government published its second 25 Year Environment Plan Progress Report. This second report describes where progress has been made towards achieving the long-term vision of the plan. It also highlights the challenges that still remain in improving the environment within a generation and which we are committed to addressing.

In the last 12 months we have taken significant steps forward in delivering our environmental commitments outlined in our 25 Year Environment Plan. We became the first major economy to legislate for net zero and underlining our commitment to achieving this target, we launched a consultation on bringing forward the end to the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles to 2035, or earlier if a faster transition appears feasible, including hybrids for the first time. We have also taken action to conserve our marine environment, including by designating the third tranche of 41 new Marine Conservation Zones in May 2019. We are also investing £640 million in a new Nature for Climate Fund to support woodland creation and peatland restoration. Action under each of the goal areas of the 25 Year Environment Plan is set out in the report.

A major step in implementing our environmental ambition has been bringing forward the first Environment Bill for more than 20 years to help leave the environment in a better state than that in which we found it. The Bill, alongside our strengthened Agriculture and Fisheries Bills, sets a new legal foundation for government action to improve the environment. It will place the environment at the heart of Government policy making and ensure that this Government – and future Governments – are held to account if they fail to uphold their environmental duties, including meeting net-zero by 2050, and wider long-term legally binding targets on biodiversity, air quality, water, and resource and waste efficiency established under the Bill.