Public authorities who operate in England must consider what they can do to conserve and enhance biodiversity in England. This is the strengthened ‘biodiversity duty’ introduced by the Environment Act 2021. This means that, as a public authority, we must:

1. consider what we can do to conserve and enhance biodiversity
2. agree policies and specific objectives based on our consideration
3. act to deliver our policies and achieve our objectives

To meet the initial biodiversity duty requirement, we had to complete our first consideration of what action to take for biodiversity by 1 January 2024. This was completed in December 2023. Read our biodiversity considerations report on our public notices webpages.

The Biodiversity Duty Report for Crawley sets out the qualitative and overarching information as to how we have met the biodiversity duty over the reporting period from December 2023 to December 2025. It is accompanied by a spreadsheet document which collates the quantitative data specifically in relation to the delivery of the national requirements for biodiversity net gain over the period February 2024 to December 2025.

The report considers how nature is being conserved and enhanced within the borough, by setting out the targets and actions undertaken to achieve these goals. 

It establishes the baseline reporting position from the period of publication of the biodiversity considerations report (December 2023) and the introduction of the national mandatory biodiversity duty report (February 2024 for major planning applications and April 2024 for small sites).