Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)

My Lords, this group has government and non-government amendments, so I will introduce the government amendments at this stage and then respond to further amendments at the end of the debate, once I have heard what people have to say. The further government amendments speak directly to the matters raised by environmental groups and the Office for Environmental Protection, which, along with those in other groups, present a comprehensive package that addresses these issues, as well as picking up wider matters raised during parliamentary debates on how the nature restoration fund will operate. Government Amendment 245A will require Natural England to set out the anticipated sequencing of conservation measures set against the development expected to come forward under the EDP. This amendment provides transparency as to when conservation measures are proposed to come forward, to address the impact of development. By including the proposed sequencing of conservation measures in the EDP, this will provide further assurance that EDPs will not lead to open-ended or irreversible impacts from development and will allow communities and developers to see how environmental benefits will be delivered over the EDP period. Although back-up measures provide greater certainty of outcome, we also propose to reframe the duty on the Secretary of State to deliver remedial action in the unlikely event that the conservation measures and back-up conservation measures do not deliver as originally foreseen. Government Amendment 295A creates an explicit requirement for midpoint, endpoint and revocation reports to set out whether the EDP is still likely to pass, or has passed, the overall improvement test. Should the endpoint report contain an assessment that the conservation measures are not likely to pass or have not passed the overall improvement test, the Secretary of State will be under a duty to take proportionate action to address any shortfall in environmental outcomes. These measures will need to be set out in a report containing a clear assessment of the effect the Secretary of State expects those actions to have. The Secretary of State will then also need to review the effect of these measures two years later. These new reporting requirements will remove the need for Natural England to conduct an annual assessment of the effectiveness of all EDPs in force. That is further addressed by government Amendment 325 C. I hope that is informative for noble Lords and I look forward to responding to the rest of the debate.