Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee
Conclusion 33
1st Report – The role of natural capital in the UK's green economy
Published 7 May 2025
Environmental Audit Committee The role of natural capital in the green economy [revived] All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Nature and biodiversity are highly location specific and a market which trades in biodiversity credits must account for this. The UK Government should ensure that the UK market has integrity and strong regulation that minimises the risk of the UK market offshoring its nature degradation. Care should be taken to ensure that credits traded through the UK market do not support market practices which put financial stability at risk. (Recommendation, Paragraph 168)
From: Environmental Audit Committee, 1st Report – The role of natural capital in the UK's green economy (HC 501), 7 May 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 22 July 2025 (deadline 7 July 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government thanks the Committee for its report and sets out, recommendation by recommendation, where it agrees, declines or will take further work, with several commitments to publish in 2025 and later.
- On the Committee's call for a report to the House on agricultural property relief, the government "does not agree" it should report within three months of the end of 2026-27. It cites a long data lag and says it will monitor reforms "in the normal way".
- On Biodiversity Net Gain, the government says it "continues to support BNG policy". It has launched two consultations, and BNG will be introduced for NSIPs "from May 2026".
- On an on-site BNG register, the government states that it does "not currently have plans to develop" one, noting that an off-site register already exists.
- On timings, it plans to publish 30by30 guidance and an action plan "later in 2025", and says the Land Use Framework "will be published later this year". Details on allocating BNG credit income will follow "in due course".