My Lords, where do you start, where do you start? I thank the Minister for his response and thank other noble Lords who have spoken in this debate. There was an interesting point from the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, who is no longer in her place, that she worries that Defra is struggling with volume. We are all worried that Defra is struggling with the volume of things coming at it. We are struggling with the volume of things coming at us, and it must be 10 times worse for the department.
The noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Basildon, made a very valid point about the expertise of this House. There is an issue in that Defra does not capitalise on expertise. There is quite a lot of inventing stuff from the start when, in fact, there are a whole load of old fogies like us out there—including former Defra civil servants, ex-NGO folk and business folk—who have gone through many of these issues umpteen times before and could have valuable input into Defra’s considerations. That has been particularly so with the ELM scheme. I do not know how many million times I have sat down and helped develop new land-management schemes under agricultural subsidy, and I am just one small cog in a big set of wheels that could be at Defra’s disposal; that is a bit off the point but is nevertheless important.
I want to pick up one or two things that the Minister said. At the heart of my concern about there being no target for protected sites is a worry about the point he made that halting species decline will need site improvement. My view is that, if there must be a focus on improving the condition of protected sites to halt species decline, why not have a number on it while we are at it and measure site improvement? First, you will be looking at sites anyway; and, secondly, not all protected sites will be picked up by the array of species in the “species abundant” set. A number of SSSIs are designated for weird and wonderful small organisms that are nevertheless incredibly important and threatened but simply will not be picked up by the array that is there. I remember fighting nobly for the SPA in the
Bristol Channel, which is designated for some teeny little worm that lives in mobile sandbanks. Try telling that to the folks who were trying to build the Severn barrage—but it was important, and we won.
I am happy about the idea that optimising land use will produce a bigger range and extent of habitats, but I do not think that really helps with the protected sites. For me, the important thing about protected sites is that they are specifically designated for a set of species and there is a specific set of management conditions that can produce improvement. We have to focus on that. I was a bit gobsmacked, if that is the technical term in your Lordships’ House, that the Minister seemed to say that some things that need to happen cannot happen because they would mean restrictions on and costs for people’s businesses and lives. That is the whole point of protected sites. They are protected regardless because they are that important. They are only a small proportion of the land surface but they are protected so that they are above the rest of the land that can be managed for multiple uses. Biodiversity must be the primary purpose.
We have legally binding targets, which are what we wanted in the Environment Act. Now that they have emerged, we are not that thrilled with them. I worry a bit. Yesterday, we spoke in the Moses Room about the woodland target because the tree cover target has been reduced to make it more achievable. The idea that, if we cannot achieve something, we should pull it down and make it more achievable worries me stiff. I also worry that we may have a tiger by the tail in that inventing the Office for Environmental Protection has meant that there is now a huge focus on anything that is statutorily required by the office’s processes. I worry that this will distort priorities and that the total focus is on avoiding the OEP taking cases against Defra; that would be a real shame at the very beginning of this new regulator.
I recognise the Minister’s personal commitment. However, I just want to say that in 2042 I shall be 94, but I will be around to remind people of how well we have done on these targets. What is more, I shall be around every year from now until then to remind people of what needs to happen. I hope that I will be encouraged by the environmental improvement plan next week and that we will see some of the informal, non-statutory targets covering protected sites. If we do not, I shall be cast down, because the statutory targets do not. I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.