The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has found possible failures to comply with environmental law by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Secretary of State (SoS) and Natural England in relation to the protection of wild birds.
An investigation was launched in March 2024 looking into possible failures to implement recommendations given by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and other conservation public bodies on the classification and adaptation of Special Protection Areas (SPAs) on land and in respect of their general duties to protect and maintain wild bird populations.
The OEP has now concluded that there may have been failures to comply with environmental law and issued each public authority with an information notice setting out the details of its findings (1)(2). They have two months to respond to the notices. The OEP will consider these responses before deciding next steps.
Helen Venn, Chief Regulatory Officer for the OEP, said: “Government has a legal obligation to maintain populations of wild birds and ensure they have enough suitable habitat. One way in which they do this is through Special Protection Areas, which are legally designated sites that protect rare and threatened wild birds.
“They are internationally important areas for breeding, overwintering, and migrating birds, and they should play an important role in achieving government’s commitments in relation to nature, such as the goal of thriving plants and wildlife in the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) and the legally binding targets to first halt and then reverse the decline of species abundance.
“However, wild bird populations continue to decline across England.
“There has been constructive engagement during our investigation with Defra and Natural England and note that some positive steps are being taken in these areas.
“However, our investigation has found what we believe to be possible failures to comply with environmental law relating to the protection of wild birds and we have therefore decided to move to the next step in our enforcement process, which is to issue information notices setting out our findings.”
When the investigation was launched, the OEP said it would also consider whether the same issues applied in the marine environment. We have concluded that there has also been a possible failure by the SoS to comply with environmental law relating to the classification of marine SPAs and this has been added to the scope of the investigation and included in the information notice for the SoS.
A parallel investigation is looking at the same issues relating to Northern Ireland, and an information notice has also been issued to DAERA.
Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) and the Interim Environmental Protection Assessor for Wales (IEPAW) have also been considering issues around SPAs and have been kept up to date with the OEP’s findings.
References
1: For the SoS: regs 9, 10, 15 and 16A of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 read with arts 2, 3 and 4 of Directive 2009/147/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2009 on the conservation of wild birds; reg 8A of the Conservation (Natural Habitats, etc.) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995; reg 12 of the Conservation of Offshore Marine Habitats and Species Regulations 2017.
2: For Natural England: regs 9, 10 and 11 of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 read with articles 2 and 3 of Directive 2009/147/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2009 on the conservation of wild birds.
Notes
These investigations are statutory investigations under section 33 of the Environment Act 2021. We have given the information notices under section 35 of the Environment Act 2021. The information notices describe the alleged failures by the Secretary of State and Natural England to comply with environmental law, explains why we believe this is serious and requests specific information relating to the allegations. The Secretary of State and Natural England must respond in writing to the information notices. The deadline set for the responses is 5 August 2025. We will use this information to understand the facts of the situation, which can inform future decisions. Under section 41 Environment Act 2021, the OEP must publish a statement where it gives an information notice. This public notice is given pursuant to section 41 of the Environment Act 2021.
The OEP’s strategy and enforcement policy can be found here. The OEP has powers to carry out an investigation into whether a public authority has complied with environmental law. Public bodies, including the Secretary of State and Natural England, have a statutory duty to cooperate with OEP and provide it with such reasonable assistance as it requests. An investigation may lead to enforcement action.
