E7: Healthy soils
Short Description
Healthy soils underpin the multiple functions of soils in food production, supporting wildlife, regulating water and regulating climate. More work is being done to define exactly what the indicator will include but it could include physical properties (such as a measure of soil structure), chemical properties (such as soil carbon, nutrients and pH), bare ground (soil) and a measure of soil biological activity. This indicator is not limited to agricultural soils. Further development of statistically and scientifically robust national monitoring programmes may be needed to provide data for this indicator.
Readiness and links to data
This indicator is not available for reporting in 2024 as further development work is required prior to inclusion in the Outcome Indicator Framework. The indicator will be published when sufficient data have been collected through the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) programme. The indicator will use data currently being gathered on soil characteristics (physical, chemical and biological) and land use to show how different soils are contributing to different ecosystem services as a measure of soil health.
The final indicator is will be drawn from a soil health indicator produced by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC). A proof of concept (JNCC report 737) was published in 2023, and JNCC has recently published a progress report (JNCC report 763) which presents a pre-experimental dataset indicative of approach from Defra’s NCEA programme. National soil monitoring under the NCEA programme began towards the end of financial year 2022/2023. Up-to-date and comprehensive soils data is a priority of the programme. Provisional updates will be produced from 2024, with the immediate phase using current capital investment to achieve 2 years of the 5 years needed for a soil health baseline. The next phase of capital investment, needed to complete the baseline by 2028, will be included in Defra’s research and development Spending Review.
JNCC will finalise the indicator models based on feedback from expert panels and adapt them to utilise new data from the England Ecosystem Survey and the National Forest Inventory Plus (NFI+) (strategic surveys under the NCEA programme). The indicator will use data gathered through NCEA to show how different soils are contributing to different ecosystem services as a measure of soil health and will contribute to a comprehensive and robust baseline for soil health by 2028. However, it may be possible to produce interim statistics. Further improvements are planned to enhance the indicator, enabling the disaggregation of results by land use and soil type, for example.
Some data on aspects of soil health are already published in the Countryside Survey reports.