Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of Heritage Lottery Fund grants have been awarded for the natural environment in each of the last 15 years.

Since 1994, The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded over £2 billion to more than 4,500 land, nature and biodiversity projects across the UK.

Protecting the environment is one of the National Lottery Heritage Fund's four investment principles and they are prioritising landscape and nature projects that support nature’s recovery, deliver nature-based solutions to address climate change, and reconnect people with landscapes, marine environments and nature. Recent targeted work in this area has included the launch of Nature Towns and Cities, a partnership initiative that brings together organisations from across the UK to improve the quality of and access to urban green spaces, and Landscape Connections, a £150million strategic initiative supporting world-class landscapes across the UK to become better for nature and people.

The following proportionates of National Lottery Heritage Grant funding awarded to the natural environment are; 2010 - 28%, 2011 - 23%, 2012 - 23%, 2013 - 17%, 2014 - 25%, 2015 - 23%, 2016 - 26%, 2017 - 25%, 2018 - 19%, 2020 - 26%, 2021 - 28%, 2022 - 21%, 2023 - 24%, 2024 - 15%.