13 Feb 2024
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is seeking feedback on policies to update guidance on Marine Protected Area (MPA) assessments. In July 2021, Defra consulted on best practice guidance for developing compensatory measures in relation to MPAs. The UK government department are now consulting on draft policies to inform updated guidance using this […]
13 Feb 2024
The Seabed User & Developer Group (SUDG), an informal grouping of the UK’s key marine industries, have called on the UK government to put in place a moratorium on the biodiversity metric for intertidal habitats. Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is a policy set out in the Environment Act 2021 and on 12 February 2024 it […]
06 Feb 2024
A Marine Management Organisation (MMO) byelaw to protect valuable marine habitats and species in 13 English offshore marine protected areas (MPAs) will come into force on 22 March 2024. Following formal consultation in 2023 and an official announcement on 31 January 2024 as part of Government’s 1 year on Environmental Improvement Plan progress update, management measures […]
20 Dec 2023
’30by30′ is a commitment in the Global Biodiversity Framework agreed at the COP15 biodiversity summit last December, whereby “30% of areas of degraded terrestrial, inland water, and marine and coastal ecosystems are under effective restoration.” Defra has outlined its approach to how the target on land in England will be met. This includes a set […]
19 Dec 2023
The first five Fisheries Management Plans have been published. The plans set out how the UK government aims to work with the fishing industry and other stakeholders to support the long-term future and sustainable management of the UK’s fish stocks. DEFRA states that these plans will help deliver the long-term economic viability of the UK’s […]
13 Dec 2023
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Barclay, has written to water companies asking them to improve maintenance programmes to ensure these are not a cause of storm overflow discharges. He highlights this is a legal requirement that water companies should already be delivering and states his plans to closely follow […]
05 Dec 2023
Defra has published a suite of guidance to support the (delayed) introduction of biodiversity net gain (BNG) becoming mandatory. They include: The statutory biodiversity metric tool and user guide The tool allows the calculation of biodiversity value for the purpose of BNG for major developments. The user guide has the information needed to use the statutory biodiversity […]
05 Dec 2023
96% of bathing waters in England have met minimum standards, with 90% of bathing waters in England being rated as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, continuing to show an overall boost in water quality over the last decade, Defra and the Environment Agency (EA) have announced. This compares with just 28% being rated as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ […]
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