Lord Blencathra (Con)

My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendments 241 and 255, tabled by my noble friend Lord Gascoigne, whom I congratulate on an excellent and thoroughly knowledgeable speech. The intention behind these amendments is that a protected species should not be included in an environmental delivery plan if it is believed that its inclusion is unlikely to contribute to the overall improvement in its conservation status. My noble friend gave examples of some species whose recovery would not be improved if they were included in an environmental development plan and, indeed, where the survival of the species could be endangered if they were. I cannot remember what type of owl it was, but my noble friend will remind me afterwards. Amendment 255 calls for the Joint Nature Conservation Committee to “publish a list of protected species which would not be suitable for inclusion in an EDP”. I want to say a few words about the JNCC, because not many people know about that, as Michael Caine might have said. It is a superb organisation covering the four countries of the United Kingdom. A Defra Minister. the excellent Mary Creagh looks after it, but it is not a Defra arm’s-length body. While my noble friend makes a good point about its expertise, and I agree, I am not sure how it could be involved in this Bill, but there is no organisation better at writing up a list of endangered species. As my noble friend said, the JNCC quinquennial review is vital in listing species that are in danger, on the red list and in need of more protection. As I have said, Natural England has some expertise but, by God, the JNCC has even more. I have a wonderful memory from two or three years ago concerning the board of the JNCC, when officials came back from their first-ever British-only meeting of CITES or some other organisation. Normally, it had all been done by the EU, and they came back in high excitement saying they could not believe it. Now they were speaking on their own, every other country in the world wanted to talk to the Brits, because they recognised that the Brits in the JNCC delegation were the top experts who had been silenced in the past, and now they loved them for it. I put that plug in for the JNCC because there will probably be no other opportunity in this Parliament over the next few years to say what a wonderful four-country organisation it is. The conservation of rare and protected species is more important than ever as the effects of climate change and the destruction of habitats threaten our environment. I thank my noble friend for his amendments, and I hope the Government will afford them the necessary attention. Finally, the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone is absolutely right to worry about the destruction of private nature markets if some of the EDPs go through. The private nature market has been building up nicely as a net gain, and in respect of the newt operation. Of course, politicians often want to talk about houses being stopped by newts. About four or five years ago, Natural England introduced the local licensing scheme and there is no problem now. Housing is not held back because of newts. The noble Baroness is right: we need to keep in mind that there is a good, growing nature market which the EDPs could destroy. I look forward to the Minister’s comments.