Background

The Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act (NERC Act) received Royal Assent on March 30 2006.

Amongst other measures, it created a ‘Biodiversity Duty’ to ensure due regard to the conservation of biodiversity, as was set out in the Countryside and Rights of Way (CROW) Act (2000), to public bodies and statutory undertakers.

This Duty applies to 

• all local authorities
• community, parish and town councils
• police, fire and health authorities
• utility companies

Section 41 of the NERC Act refers to a published list of habitats and species which are of principal importance for the conservation of biodiversity in England.

The Worcestershire’s Biodiversity Action Plan, identifies those national ‘priority’ habitats and species considered to be of particular importance here in Worcestershire.

What the Biodiversity Duty means for Worcestershire County Council?

The biodiversity duty set out in Section 40 of the NERC Act, has now been further strengthened through the Environment Act (2021), which states that:

"A public authority which has any functions exercisable in relation to England must from time to time consider what action the authority can properly take, consistently with the proper exercise of its functions, to further the general biodiversity objective".

This amendment requires all public authorities to:

• consider what can be done to conserve and enhance biodiversity
• agree policies and specific objectives based on this consideration
• act to deliver the policies and achieve these objectives.

Public authorities must take these proposed actions to further the general biodiversity objective and are required to periodically report on these actions.

Worcestershire County Council (WCC) undertook and published its first consideration of relevant functions which contribute towards our strengthened statutory biodiversity duty in 2024. In March 2026, WCC published the next iteration of its Biodiversity Duty Report.

Both reports summarise biodiversity contributions from across the council, including the maintenance of public rights of way and highways, management of public land under WCC stewardship, and how biodiversity is considered in the planning process. You can download both reports using the links below.

Government guidance

The Government has produced further guidance for public authorities on Complying with the biodiversity duty and Reporting your biodiversity duty actions.