Network Rail: Biodiversity
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 24 June 2026 to Question 11452 on Network Rail: Biodiversity, what guidance Network Rail issues on when a habitat management plan is required; and how many such plans are currently in force.
Answered by Keir Mather
Network Rail has a company standard entitled ‘Biodiversity’ published in March 2023. Within this standard is a module entitled ‘Habitat Management Plan’ and its scope reads: ‘This module contains the key principles for the management and enhancement of biodiversity and prescribes requirements for producing habitat management plans (HMP) for the rail network.’
There are two levels of habitat management plan in use across the rail network: (1) generic habitat plans which provide detail at a whole route or habitat-type level; and (2) specific location plans which are a more detailed document providing guidance for a particular location.
At present there is almost 80 per cent of the network by area covered by generic habitat plans. There have also been almost 200 of the specific location plans produced; these include railway-designated nature sites as well as sites of special scientific interest.
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