Written question asked by Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 7 July 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 9 July 2025. It was answered by Mary Creagh (Labour) on Tuesday, 15 July 2025 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Grasslands: Conservation

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the levels of protection for species-rich meadows in devolved Administrations on UK-wide nature recovery objectives.

Answer: As responsibility for the conservation of habitats is a devolved matter Defra continues to be guided by co-ordination and expert advice from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), the UK wide Statutory adviser on Nature. The primary mechanism for assessing the state of change to species rich grasslands across the UK is through reporting obligations under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 and related regulations covering Scotland and NI. The next round of reporting under this legislation is currently being undertaken by each country due for publication in 2026. JNCC are providing the co-ordination to maintain sufficient consistency in each country report to facilitate cross UK integration and comparison, enabling the countries to gain insight on effectiveness of country level policies. The previous report (2019) is available through the JNCC website.

Secondary information