NATURAL ENGLAND RESPONSE TO PAC REPORT ON SSSIs
Natural England welcomes the report by the Public Accounts Committee into Natural England’s role in improving SSSIs.
The report highlights the improvement in the fortunes of SSSIs in recent years. At the end of March 2009, 88% of the land area of SSSIs was in favourable or recovering condition. This is a very significant achievement given the situation that existed only six years ago when the figure was at 57%.
Helen Phillips, Chief Executive of Natural England, said, “Natural England has been instrumental in reversing the half century of steady decline that so many SSSIs had experienced since 1949. After much hard work and investment, most SSSIs are now in a far better state under our management than they have been in for years. There is, however, no room for complacency – a great deal more work will be needed to ensure the full recovery of SSSIs and to maintain them at that level over the long term, especially in the face of the numerous external threats like climate change, development and changing land use. We are under no illusions about the challenges involved and remain committed to doing what it takes to deliver on this vital target and beyond”.
While reporting on the encouraging progress made to date, the PAC report has made various recommendations on how Natural England should be recording and planning its work for improving SSSIs. Natural England will consider carefully all of the Public Accounts Committee’s findings, but believes that it is already well on the way to addressing many of the recommendations made.
For example, Natural England:
Has established a comprehensive monitoring programme that will ensure that, by December 2010, all SSSIs will have an up to date assessment of their condition;
Has produced a SSSI notification strategy that sets out a systematic approach to keep SSSIs under review and have begun a programme of SSSI notification & re-notification to ensure that the suite of sites remains up to date.
Now monitors the time taken to secure the necessary management of SSSIs through voluntary agreements and has plans and procedures in place to use its regulatory powers where negotiations do not reach a conclusion in a reasonable timescale. We have also established a specialist team of Regional Regulatory & Enforcement leads to lead on such cases.
Natural England is also working with Defra to consider how best to tackle the challenge of ensuring we achieve the goal of full recovery once the target is met in 2010.