Biodiversity Duty Action Plan
Lesser Stitchwort. ©2025 Jason P Ball
Biodiversity Duty Action Plan
Our Biodiversity Duty Action Plan contains aims, actions and goals for the Council and its partners.
Work to enhance nature includes:
- actions taken in its role as a Local Planning Authority
- actions outside that role e.g. Boosting Nature in Green Spaces.
The Council has published a progress report on its actions: Biodiversity Duty Report 2025.
About this statutory duty
The Council’s ‘biodiversity duty’ is a statutory obligation to conserve and enhance biodiversity (habitats and species) as set out by the Environment Act 2021 and the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 (NERC Act) as amended.
The aim of the legislation is to provide for the enhancement or improvement of biodiversity, not just its maintenance in its current state. The action plan’s purpose is to enable and inform implementation, decision-making and policy development. (Full title: Biodiversity Duty Policy Framework and Action Plan.)
The Council must also report on its biodiversity duty actions in line with Defra guidance. The action plan was developed with Elected Members and staff teams during 2024, so the first progress report covered activities from 2024 and 2025. After this, the end date of each reporting period must be within five years of the end date of the previous reporting period, as required by Defra.