Guidance

Reporting your biodiversity duty actions

As a local authority or local planning authority, when to publish your biodiversity report and what to include.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Published: 17 May 2023
• Last updated: 17 September 2025 — See all updates

Applies to England

Your biodiversity report documents the policies and actions you’ve carried out to comply with your biodiversity duty.

The report communicates what your organisation is doing to improve the environment and helps local authorities to share best practice.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) intends to include references to these reports in future reviews of the Environmental Improvement Plan.

Who must publish a report

Local authorities (excluding parish councils) and local planning authorities must publish a biodiversity report.

If you’re a National Park Authority, you could include information about how you have complied with the biodiversity duty in your management plan instead of making a separate report. If you do this, your management plan must meet the legal requirements for biodiversity reporting outlined on this page.

Other public authorities do not need to publish a report but must fulfil their biodiversity duty. They may be required to publish a report in future. Defra will consult before changing this requirement.

When to publish your report

The end date of your first reporting period should be no later than 1 January 2026.

After this, the end date of each reporting period must be within 5 years of the end date of the previous reporting period.

You must include the start and end dates of your reporting period in each report.

You must publish all reports within 12 weeks of the reporting period end date.

What to include in your report

By law, your report must include:

• a summary of the action you’ve taken to comply with the biodiversity duty
• how you plan to comply with the biodiversity duty in the next reporting period
• any other information you consider appropriate

Reports from local planning authorities must also include the following biodiversity net gain (BNG) information:

• the actions you’ve carried out to meet BNG obligations
• details of BNG resulting, or expected to result, from biodiversity gain plans you’ve approved
• how you plan to meet BNG obligations in the next reporting period

Optional information

To further communicate steps you’re taking to improve the environment, your report could also include: 

• information about your authority
• your top achievements
• how you’ve considered relevant local nature recovery, protected site and species conservation strategies
• how your policies and actions have helped the environment
• how you’ve raised awareness and educated the community
• monitoring and evaluating your actions
• biodiversity highlights and challenges

Writing your report

You can set out your report in any way you choose, as long as you include the required information.

You could use the following structure. This is an example of how you could include the required and optional information.

Section 1: Your policies, objectives and actions

You must include this information in your report. 

In this section, explain:

• the policies and objectives you have set to meet your biodiversity duty
• the actions you’ve completed, either alone or in partnership with others, that benefit biodiversity

Section 2: Your future actions

You must include this information in your report.

In this section, explain how your organisation plans to fulfil your biodiversity duty over the next 5 years following the end of this reporting period. You can refer back to this section in the next reporting period, as part of your monitoring and evaluation.

Alternatively, you could:

• include this required information in each section of your report, alongside the actions you’ve achieved
• summarise your plans for future actions separately

Section 3: Biodiversity net gain information (for local planning authorities only) 

You must include this information in your report if you are a local planning authority.

In this section, include the required information on BNG. You could also explain how you have:

• monitored biodiversity gains and the results of this monitoring
• used your land as a biodiversity gain site
• supported the development of a local BNG market

You could include quantitative data to add useful detail to your report. This could include data showing:

• the number of biodiversity gain plans approved
• the split between on-site and off-site gains and statutory credits
• the net gain in number of units and average percentage gain across approved biodiversity gain plans

This quantitative data will help you show how you’ve met the 10% net gain requirement and followed the biodiversity gain hierarchy.

If you use a software package, you may be able to generate data for your report automatically. In this case, you could include more detail on:

• the number of and net change in biodiversity units and area split by habitat type, for example, grassland
• the number of approved biodiversity gain plans that impact on irreplaceable habitat
• the location and number of approved offsite biodiversity units
• the results of monitoring activity at a habitat level

If you do not need to meet BNG requirements, you can remove this section.

Section 4: Information about your authority

This information is optional.

You could explain the role and purpose of your authority. Include:

• a brief description of the authority’s functions
• the size of the authority
• an outline of its governance and management structures

Summarise how your authority can affect biodiversity, both positively and negatively, in relation to:

• land and estates you manage, including any protected areas and sites
• planning and development decisions
• advice you give
• raising awareness within the community
• how your operations affect the environment

Section 5: Your top achievements

This information is optional.

You could give a summary of what you, as a local authority, have achieved in the reporting period:

• actions you’ve taken to conserve and enhance biodiversity
• achievements as a result of your actions
• actions you plan to take in the next reporting period

Section 6: How you have considered other strategies 

This information is optional.

You could explain how you’ve taken local nature recovery, protected site and species conservation strategies into account, where they are available.

For example, include information about how:

• you’ve advised or worked in a local nature recovery strategy partnership in your area
• these strategies have influenced your policies, objectives or actions

Section 7: How your policies, objectives and actions have helped the environment 

This information is optional.

You could expand on section 1 by explaining how your policies, objectives and actions have:

• contributed to conserving, restoring or enhancing species populations or a particular habitat
• contributed to improving the condition of protected areas and sites
• benefitted biodiversity – noting the successes and challenges
• encouraged involvement in important partnerships, such as local nature recovery strategies
• started to address the main causes of biodiversity loss – for example, land use changes, invasive non-native species and wider pressures like pollution

For local authorities, you could also include any action taken within National Landscapes in your biodiversity report. Where the boundaries of National Landscapes cross multiple local authorities, you should agree how to approach reporting together.

As a local planning authority, you could include information on how complying with your BNG obligations relates to other obligations. This could include the requirements of the environmental assessment regulations.

Add data to your report to show how your policies, objectives and actions have helped. For example, you could report hectares of raised bog restored or new woodland planted to enhance biodiversity.

Quantitative data can help you monitor and evaluate the results of your actions. Quantitative data you could report includes:

• the condition of sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) from the latest assessment
• the percentage of on-track actions needed to restore SSSIs to favourable condition
• the result of monitoring you’ve carried out to fulfil the requirements of the environmental assessment regulations
• how many local sites within your local authority area have positive conservation management and information on its effectiveness
• areas of land you own or manage that include habitats of principal importance – you can find mapping data for habitats on the Magic Map

Include boundary data for areas of land you own or manage that are important for biodiversity, such as land:

• where existing conservation measures or biodiversity management plans are in place
• where you’ve put new conservation measures in place, or changed them, over the reporting period
• that is also a local wildlife site or local nature reserve

Describe if land you own or manage is identified in local nature recovery strategies as:

• ‘areas that are of particular importance for biodiversity’
• ‘areas that could become of particular importance for biodiversity’
• ‘areas where the recovery or enhancement of biodiversity could make a particular contribution to other environmental benefits’

Report changes you’ve made to management practices to increase the area’s importance for biodiversity, in line with the local nature recovery strategies.

Section 8: How you’ve raised awareness and educated the community

This information is optional.

You could describe what you’ve done to:

• raise awareness of biodiversity in the community
• advise on how to conserve and enhance biodiversity
• incorporate conservation and enhancement of biodiversity into education
• engage with the public and your staff on biodiversity matters

Read about how you could educate, advise and raise public awareness to fulfil your biodiversity duty.

Section 9: Monitoring and evaluating your actions

This information is optional.

You could explain how you’ve measured your actions and how you’ve assessed their effects on biodiversity. If you have not monitored your activities, explain why.

Where you can, report on how you monitored and evaluated:

• the way you recorded biodiversity on land you own or manage
• your contribution to meeting national and international biodiversity targets
• your biodiversity programmes or projects, done either alone or in partnership with others
• the way you implemented relevant strategies or policies
• physical conditions like soil and water quality
• any relevant environmental assessments you’re responsible for, such as the strategic environmental assessment of the local plan, or local transport, minerals or waste plans
• your organisation’s capability or development relating to biodiversity

Report on any significant trends or areas of concern you’ve found. For example, if you notice:

• changes to the conservation status of habitats you manage or protect
• changes to the ecological health of land you own or manage
• adverse recordings of water or soil quality
• increases or decreases in the number and type of species present

Section 10: Biodiversity highlights and challenges

This information is optional.

At the end of the report, you could explain your main achievements for biodiversity over the reporting period.

For example, include where you have:

• led or contributed to projects that support the biodiversity targets set under the Environment Act 2021 or international targets
• demonstrated leadership or expertise in relation to biodiversity
• improved habitats or ecological status
• found notable species on land you manage or own
• completed important biodiversity projects
• delivered or achieved funding grants
• run volunteer days
• provided successful education or public engagement activities

Explain what you think the main challenges will be over the next 5 years. These challenges could include:

• economic and resource pressures
• delivering cross-cutting actions
• preventing further loss of habitats and species
• effective management of invasive non-native species
• pressures for space
• the need to meet targets

Published 17 May 2023

Last updated 17 September 2025 + show all updates

1. 17 September 2025

   We’ve made small changes to make the guidance easier to follow for local authorities and local planning authorities reporting on biodiversity actions. We’ve also added information about the types of biodiversity net gain data that local planning authorities can include in their reports.

2. 17 May 2023

   First published.