The 25 Year Environment Plan is not yet supported by clear, ambitious, quantified statutory targets and milestones. The Environment Bill will provide a statutory underpinning for five of the goals in the Plan, but government has not set long-term objectives for the other five plan areas or how its goals will be met. The current significant improvement test for targets within the Environment Bill is ultimately decided by the Secretary of State. We agree with the Natural Capital Committee that ...

The 25 Year Environment Plan is not yet supported by clear, ambitious, quantified statutory targets and milestones. The Environment Bill will provide a statutory underpinning for five of the goals in the Plan, but government has not set long-term objectives for the other five plan areas or how its goals will be met. The current significant improvement test for targets within the Environment Bill is ultimately decided by the Secretary of State. We agree with the Natural Capital Committee that the test is highly subjective. Type: conclusion | Number: 35 | Paragraph: 156 | Response status: not_addressed Government response: As a core part of our commitment to leave the environment in a better state than we found it, we have amended the Environment Bill to require a new, historic legally binding target to be set to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030 in England. The details of the 2030 species target will be s