Part 1: Environmental Governance Chapter 1: Improving the natural environment Section 6: Environmental targets: reporting duties
Section 6 sets out the reporting duties that must be fulfilled when a long-term target set under section 1 the PM2.5 air quality target set under section 2 or the species abundance target set under section 3  ends.
	Subsection (1) requires that all regulations setting targets under sections 1, 2 and 3 contain a reporting date. This is the date used to determine the timescales for producing the statements under section 6.
	Subsections (2) and (3) require the Secretary of State to prepare a statement confirming whether or not each target has been met. Alternatively, the statement may provide that the Secretary of State is currently unable to make that confirmation. The statement must be published, and laid before Parliament, by the relevant reporting date set under subsection (1).
	Subsections (4) and (5) set out the process the Secretary of State must follow in the event that the statement made under subsection (2) confirms that the target has not been met. The Secretary of State must prepare a report explaining why the target has not been met and setting out the steps taken, or intended to be taken, to achieve the required standard as soon as reasonably practicable. That report must be published, and laid before Parliament, within twelve months of the statement being laid.
	Subsection (3)(c) provides that, where the Secretary of State is unable to confirm whether or not a target has been met, the statement made under subsection (2) must explain why and set out the steps the Secretary of State intends to take in order to be able to make that determination. In these cases, subsection (6) provides that the Secretary of State must prepare a further subsection (2) statement within six months of the initial statement being laid. There may be cases when the data needed to assess whether a target has been met is not yet available, and the Secretary of State is therefore unable to confirm target achievement on the reporting date. Subsection (7) provides that, where further statements are needed pursuant to subsection (6), the requirements of subsections (3) to (6) apply equally to those statements.