Environment Act 2021 Targets

Question

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government how they intend to meet the targets in the Environment Act 2021, including halting the decline of species abundance by 2030 and increasing overall species abundance by at least 10 per cent by 2042 compared to 2030 levels.

My Lords, Defra published the revised environmental improvement plan in December 2025. This sets out the Government’s long-term plan for improving the natural environment and our enjoyment of it. It includes prioritised actions to deliver our goals and ambitious Environment Act targets, and clearly describes the actions that are required and, importantly, who is responsible for delivering them. The delivery plans published alongside the environmental improvement plan set out how we will deliver against our interim and long-term targets.

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for her reply. Notwithstanding the work that the Government have done on this and the plans that they have put in place, the Office for Environmental Protection has concerns. It reported back in January:

“Government needs to speed up and scale up its efforts … and actions”

because they remain

“largely off track to meet EA21 targets”.

The window of opportunity is closing fast. We need to drive nature recovery at scale. With 70% of the UK being farmland, farmers play a vital role in nature recovery as well as in ensuring food supply. Might the Government consider providing greater support to farmers for these two twin aims, including within the environmental land management schemes?

The OEP’s assessment that the right reverend Prelate refers to was made before our revised environmental improvement plan. Following the assessment, we have reset the interim targets so that they are live and under active review. Regarding farm wildlife, to achieve the legally binding biodiversity targets referred to we need as many farmers as possible to be working in a way which benefits biodiversity. Crucially, this will mean land sharing, to support farm wildlife alongside productive farming, as well as land sparing—habitat creation and restoration through bigger projects such as our landscape recovery project. That is a new interim target for the EIP to deliver environmental change through incentivising farmers.

My Lords—

My Lords—

We will hear from the Cross Benches, then the Opposition Benches.

My Lords, I appreciate the response from the Minister. We are very good at saying what is not working but not so good at measuring what is working. Anecdotally we know that some improvements, such as rewilding and regenerative agriculture, are working for nature, but we still lack the metrics and data to record that. Can the Minister assure us that she will look at broadening out what is assessed so that we can learn which legislation is bringing about improvements in nature?

The noble Baroness is absolutely right. Unless you have accurate data, you do not know whether you have set the right targets. It is absolutely critical. One of the things that we are looking at in Defra, right across the board, is how to improve our datasets. In this particular area, it is critical. We know that if you target nature properly, it recovers very quickly, but we need to understand that better.

Does the Minister agree that invasive non-native species have a very profound effect on not only the economy but our native ecosystem? Does she agree also that we should do more by way of research in dealing with this, and with the mobilisation of volunteers? I am thinking particularly of the efforts with, for example, Asian hornets, grey squirrels, Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed. There is so much we could do by mobilising so many people to help with this.

I could not agree more with the noble Lord; he has got it exactly right. I am very pleased that I am going to be supporting Invasive Species Week this week by going to Derwentwater, near where I live, to look at the work being done by the Rivers Trust on Himalayan balsam, for example. I am sure the noble Lord will also be pleased to know that I spent all last weekend, and the weekend before, Himalayan balsam bashing. We have a local group in our parish on Himalayan balsam bashing, which my husband runs. We also do a lot of work with the red squirrel group locally. It is something that I am absolutely passionate about.

My Lords, I declare my interests as an ambassador for the Wildlife Trusts. Its analysis shows that ending bottom trawling in offshore marine protected areas would not only conserve and restore natural habitats but deliver up to £3.5 billion in net economic benefits. Can my noble friend the Minister confirm when the Government will implement the long-awaited ban so that these gains can be realised?

We are all aware of the damage that bottom trawling can do, which is why we are looking to improve the situation in our marine protected areas. We had a Question on this quite recently, when I mentioned that we are working with the MMO on this. We need to get a solution. It is a complex area. We need to balance fishing with protecting our environment. We are working actively with the MMO and hope to have some outcomes from that very shortly.

My Lords, given that only 14% of rivers in England are in a good ecological status, while agricultural pollution affects 40% of water bodies and wastewater pollution affects 36%, and given the importance of healthy freshwater ecosystems to species recovery, what assessment have the Government made of the impact of river pollution on their biodiversity targets, and what specific improvements are expected in river health by 2030?

River health is incredibly important for all sorts of reasons. Coming back to invasive species, we have issues with invasive species, such as mink, in rivers, so we need to look at it in the round. We have agriculture pollution, and there is run-off from other areas as well. We also have the issues around invasive species; Himalayan balsam, which I mentioned earlier, destroys riverbanks. There is lots of work that needs to be done. We need to get the data and information correct so that we can target resources to make the biggest difference. But if we do not get our freshwater rivers sorted out, we are not going to resolve the biosecurity issues, and we are not going to meet our targets. It is something that we are absolutely focused on delivering on.

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for arranging a meeting with her officials earlier this year to discuss Defra’s Habitats Regulations General Implementation Report for the Reporting Period 2019 to 2024. The report makes discouraging reading: of the 71 habitat types covered by these regulations, only 3% are in favourable condition. These include some of the most valuable habitats in the country, such as Dartmoor, the Ouse Washes, and so on. What steps is Defra now taking to improve the conservation status of these protected habitats, bearing in mind that one of the major causes of them being in poor condition is nitrogen pollution from agriculture and other sources?

With the interim and statutory targets that we have on habitat, a mix of groups—farmers, environmental NGOs, businesses and the public—are going to have to come together to meet them. To meet the habitat targets, we have lots of interdependencies, which makes it more difficult. The noble Lord is right to point to nitrogen, which is a particular problem. This comes back to the noble Baroness’s question about rivers; this is an important part of our delivery around habitats. I know that the noble Lord has been meeting officials, and we very much value his expertise in this matter. I suggest that we continue to work together, because these targets are challenging.