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Select committee inquiry

Biodiversity offsetting inquiry

Closed

Environmental Audit Committee · Opened 4 September 2013 · Closed 26 March 2014

Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗

What the inquiry looked at

“The Environmental Audit Committee launched an inquiry into the Government consultation on Biodiversity offsetting in England, which proposed to introduce a system for allowing biodiversity loss associated with developments to be measured and offset against compensatory biodiversity gain elsewhere. The aim of the inquiry was to contribute to a wider ongoing inquiry by the Committee on Well-being. In that inquiry we took evidence from Prof Dieter Helm, chair of the Natural Capital Committee, which included some discussion of the scope for biodiversity offsetting.”

The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.

What the government said

The government responded on 28 March 2014.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response.

The Government says it will follow the Committee's recommendation and make no policy decisions on biodiversity offsetting until the pilots have been assessed, while setting out qualifications on several other recommendations.

  • On the pilots, the Government "will follow this recommendation": the pilots finish at the end of March 2014, when Collingwood Environmental Planning will assess them, and no policy decisions will be made "until it has considered that assessment".
  • It "strongly agrees" that the mitigation hierarchy should keep its primacy, saying this reflects the commitment in its green paper.
  • On the metric, it says that as it considers its policy it "will think about what work may be needed", and notes that offsetting would operate within the existing planning framework, including strict protections for irreplaceable habitats and SSSIs.
  • On local authority costs, it "does not expect that offsetting would place additional costs on planning authorities and may present opportunities for savings", noting that applicants are responsible for providing accurate information.

Read the government's response ↗ Read the report ↗ Report an error

How the inquiry ran

Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 4 September 2013 to 28 March 2014.

  1. Oral evidence 23 Oct 2013
  2. Report 12 Nov 2013
  3. Government response 28 Mar 2014

What it recommended

The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in 6th Report - Biodiversity Offsetting ↗ on parliament.uk.

Evidence

Oral evidence sessions 1