Biodiversity Duty
The Biodiversity Duty is a legal requirement for public authorities to actively consider, conserve, and enhance biodiversity when exercising their functions. The Environmental Act 2021 strengthened this duty for public authorities and requires them to not only conserve biodiversity but to actively enhance it and create a more sustainable and resilient natural environment.
The strengthened biodiversity duty now requires:
- Consideration of what the Council can do to conserve and enhance biodiversity.
- Agreement of policies and specific objectives to enhance biodiversity, based on those considerations.
- Action to deliver these policies and achieve the objectives.
More detail on complying with the biodiversity duty can be found online at Complying with the biodiversity duty - GOV.UK.
Reporting Our Biodiversity Duty Actions
Local planning authorities are required to publish a biodiversity report. The Council's report can be viewed below:
Biodiversity Duty Report (PDF)
The report includes:
- An introduction and summary of the policies and actions carried out by the Council to conserve and enhance biodiversity within the first reporting period up to the end of 2025.
- How the Council intends to continue to meet the Biodiversity Duty in the future.
- The actions the Council has carried out to meet BNG obligations.
- Details of the BNG resulting for biodiversity gain plans the Council has approved.
- How the Council plans to meet BNG obligations in the next reporting period.
