Committee seeks views on natural environment, rural communities and biodiversity

The Select Committee on the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 has published its Call for Evidence. Interested parties are invited to submit written evidence to the Committee by 11 September 2017.

Lord Cameron of Dillington, who chairs the Committee, said:

‘The Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 sought to deliver against the then Government’s Rural Strategy; it established the now disbanded Commission for Rural Communities and created Natural England. It has an extremely broad remit that is supposed to protect the environment and biodiversity while also promoting the needs of rural communities. Eleven years on we need to ask whether this Act and the current delivery structures approach these issues in the right way. An examination of this legislation is crucial to maintaining and enhancing our environment and our rural communities for the benefit of everyone – particularly given the wide-ranging changes that will result from Brexit. I encourage anyone who can inform the Committee’s inquiry to submit written evidence.’