Environment Act biodiversity rules start on 7 May 2026

This is one of those very short legal notices that can look minor until you spot the date. According to legislation.gov.uk, the Environment Act 2021 (Commencement No. 11) Regulations 2026 were made on 5 May 2026 and bring part of the Act into force on 7 May 2026. The provisions being switched on are section 99 and Schedule 15, both dealing with biodiversity gain in nationally significant infrastructure projects. Mary Creagh, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, signed the Regulations on 5 May. So while the document itself is brief, the change it activates matters for how very large projects in England are assessed.

If you are new to this kind of legislation, the key phrase is 'commencement regulations'. Parliament passed the Environment Act in 2021, but not every section had to start on the same day. Ministers can bring different parts into force later, and the explanatory note says this is the eleventh set of commencement regulations made under the Act. **Why the dates matter:** this document does not create a brand-new policy from scratch. It turns on powers that were already written into the 2021 Act. In plain English, the Government has now chosen the date when these biodiversity rules begin to apply in practice.

So what is changing? The explanatory note says the new provisions concern biodiversity gain statements for nationally significant infrastructure projects. That is the special planning route used for very large schemes, where decisions are taken under the Planning Act 2008 rather than through an ordinary local planning application. **In plain English:** the law is trying to make sure that major development does not simply damage habitats and move on. It must be judged against a nature-related objective set by Government. This sits within the wider push to leave the natural environment in a better state after development, not a worse one.

The legal machinery sits inside changes to the Planning Act 2008. Section 99 and Schedule 15 of the Environment Act amend that Act, including by inserting a new Schedule 2A. According to the explanatory note, this new schedule requires the Secretary of State to include a biodiversity gain statement when the next review takes place for any relevant National Policy Statement covering development in England. The note also says the Secretary of State may issue a biodiversity gain statement even where no relevant National Policy Statement is in place. That is an important detail. It means the system is not meant to stall simply because a policy statement has not yet been prepared or reviewed.

The other big change is to decision-making. Sections 104 and 105 of the Planning Act 2008 are amended so that the Secretary of State cannot grant development consent for a project covered by a biodiversity gain statement unless satisfied that the biodiversity gain objective in that statement has been met. **What this means:** for developers, nature is not just background material to mention late in the process. For the public, it means there is now a clearer legal test that has to be passed before consent can be given in the cases covered by these provisions.

There is another detail worth noticing. New Schedule 2A gives the Secretary of State a regulation-making power to exclude certain descriptions of development from the scope of these rules. In other words, ministers have left room to define where the biodiversity gain statement regime does and does not apply. The explanatory note also says no separate impact assessment has been published for these Regulations because they do not create costs on their own, separate from the provisions they commence. A fuller impact assessment was published for the Environment Act itself through Defra.

That may sound procedural, but procedure is often where planning law does its real work. A short statutory instrument can change the point at which environmental protection becomes a legal hurdle rather than a policy aim. From 7 May 2026, these biodiversity gain provisions are no longer waiting in the wings for nationally significant infrastructure projects. For readers trying to make sense of it all, the simplest takeaway is this: the Government has activated a part of the Environment Act 2021 that ties big-project consent more closely to biodiversity outcomes. It is a reminder that planning law is not only about where things get built. It is also about what environmental standard must be met before ministers say yes.