I am writing to request information I am entitled to under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I am requesting the following information related to the Biodiversity Duty:

1. A record of your first considerations of what action to take for biodiversity, which was due to be completed by 1 January 2024.
There is no duty on the Council to have produced a report by 1st January 2024. Rather, the duty is to consider how the Council’s operations work to conserve and enhance biodiversity as part of our Enhanced Biodiversity Duty so that objectives can be set in preparation for a report to be produced that details set objectives and progress towards them by 1 January 2026.
Meetings were held with internal teams in October 2023 to consider what is currently being delivered through existing operations and what objectives can be set in order to conserve and enhance biodiversity however this is an ongoing piece of work.

2. Any policies and objectives for biodiversity which were agreed as soon as possible after this
Policies and objectives for biodiversity will be published at a later date and in line with the 1st January 2026 requirement.

3. How many hectares of priority habitat you have identified for restoration or creation in the next five years
The Council does not currently have a set programme for priority habitats for restoration or creation that are taking place within the next five years however the Council does have an existing Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) and a monitoring report which identifies areas of priority habitat within Wokingham. While the BAP is due for review in 2025, we are awaiting the publication of the Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS)to ensure that any new or amendments to objectives is in line with the published LNRS.
The Council is actively identifying opportunities for habitat restoration and or creation and we expect to be able to provide more information around this as part of our Enhanced Biodiversity Duty report.
We have two DEFRA HLS countryside stewardship grant schemes in place across the borough which have been in place since the 90s, these are currently being renewed annually by DEFRA.
Regards to hectares of priority habitat due to be restored or created, we have several projects to carry out restoration and creation of Heathland and Reedbed wetland that we are working on currently (3.5ha heathland and 4.5ha reedbed)
We are in discussions to carry out some meadow improvements on some of our sites which will undoubtedly be carried out over the next 5 years but could only guess at the sizes of meadows due to be created or enhanced.