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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which organisation controls heath and heather areas in the north-west of England, and where those areas are.

Management control of heathland and other habitats with heather in the North West rests with a range of public and private entities.

There are three types of priority habitat that are dominated by heather: (i) lowland heath; (ii) upland heathland; and (iii) mountain heath and willow scrub.

The distribution of these habitats across the North West is shown in the maps which have been produced by Natural England and have been placed in the Library of the House and sent to the Noble Lord.