Baroness Young of Old Scone (Lab)

My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 258C, which seeks to ensure that EDPs are grounded in scientific evidence and on clear ecological baselines, so that they can be judged as genuinely delivering measurable environmental improvements. The Government’s proposed amendments are welcome as going some way, requiring Natural England to have regard to existing scientific evidence, but they are silent on what happens if there is not sufficient data or evidence. Perhaps the noble Baroness could say whether Natural England would at that point be required to collect new evidence to establish a baseline from which measures and outcomes would be judged. This amendment would ensure that every EDP has a strong evidential foundation, so that the interventions can be judged on whether they are credible to make them defensible. I remind noble Lords that we are dealing in this circumstance with the most important and threatened environmental features in this country, which until now have been regarded as requiring the highest level of legal protection, so it is important that we get the scientific and evidential bases right. To assess whether development has a negative or a positive impact, it is essential to know what the starting ecological conditions were. Without a sufficient baseline, it is not possible to evaluate whether an EDP is achieving the environmental improvements it is supposed to. Requiring a proper baseline and evidential base builds in transparency, increases trust in the whole system, and allows proper monitoring over time, and I welcome the noble Baroness’s explanation of the additional amendments on monitoring. This amendment also requires Natural England to take account of the environmental principles in preparing the EDP and to publish a statement of how it has done so. The noble Baroness has already talked about the importance of the environmental principles, but it would be useful to get some clarification of how they would refer to Natural England’s role as opposed to ministerial roles, to which it is clear through legislation that they already apply. Requiring Natural England to consider them explicitly and to put that in the Bill would give clarity for developers, regulators and the public.