Baroness Grender (LD)

My Lords, Amendment 340 proposes a new clause after Clause 87. This amendment would enshrine clear duties on both the Secretary of State and Natural England to take all reasonable steps to avoid, prevent and reduce significant adverse environmental effects when exercising their functions under Part 3. It would require them to enhance biodiversity to safeguard designated sites—such as the European and Ramsar sites that we have heard mentioned in the previous group—except in exceptional cases, and to protect irreplaceable habitats such as ancient woodland and veteran trees. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Freeman, who has signed the amendment. She sends her apologies and says: “This amendment provides a great opportunity for the Government to clarify the core commitments to existing nature protection that they have stated should remain in the Bill. This amendment is an essential clarification and strengthening of legal duties that already underpin environmental protections but risk being diluted under the new framework established by Part 3. While the Bill aims to streamline development and introduce strategic fund-based mechanisms for environmental management through both EDPs and the NRF, there have been legitimate concerns that existing protections might be weakened or circumvented”. So this amendment does not obstruct development. It ensures that decision-makers uphold critical environmental principles consistently and transparently. It explicitly requires the Secretary of State and Natural England to take all reasonable steps to avoid causing significant harm, applying the fundamental mitigation hierarchy that we have already talked about and which prioritises avoidance first, minimisation second and compensation only as a last resort. The amendment’s emphasis on enhancing biodiversity aligns directly with the Government’s own Environmental Principles Policy Statement, which guides all departments to embed environmental protection in their decision-making, and it places biodiversity improvement alongside harm avoidance as a clear statutory duty. Of particular importance is the protection afforded to irreplaceable habitats, as I have mentioned already. These are a unique and fragile ecosystem systems comprising just 2.5% of UK land yet supporting disproportionately rich biodiversity, and the NPPF rightly sets the loss of such habitats as a matter to be refused unless wholly exceptional reasons apply and compensatory measures are in place. Embedding this principle therefore in primary legislation strengthens the hand of conservation and local communities. The amendment also correctly restricts where significant adverse effects on European and Ramsar sites may be permitted—only where justified by imperative reasons of overriding public importance—and where compensation will occur. This follows long-established environmental law and international obligations, and provides clarity. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response.