Part 6: Nature and Biodiversity Section 105: Preparation of local nature recovery strategies
This section sets out the process by which LNRSs are to be prepared, published, reviewed and republished. It also provides a power for the Secretary of State to make regulations regarding this process.
	Subsection (1) sets out that each LNRS will be prepared and published by a "responsible authority". The requirement to publish the LNRS is to ensure that the LNRS is a publicly available document.
	Subsection (2) states that the Secretary of State will appoint the responsible authority for each LNRS, and lists the authorities who may potentially be appointed. In addition to those local authorities listed at section 108(2), the Secretary of State may appoint a mayoral authority, national park (including the Broads Authority) or Natural England.
	It is intended that the appointment of the responsible authority will be by mutual agreement between the Secretary of State and the authority. Where the LNRS area corresponds with county or mayoral boundaries, it may be that the county council or mayoral authority would be well-placed to act as responsible authority. Where this is not the case, it would be preferable for the responsible authority to be another local authority, mayoral authority or national park to foster strong links between the LNRS and the land-use planning system and to benefit from existing local democratic mechanisms. Alternatively, Natural England would act as responsible authority.
	Subsection (3) requires that the LNRS is reviewed and republished from time to time to ensure it remains current, relevant and forward-looking. Updates may be periodic or triggered by the Secretary of State publishing an updated national habitat map under section 107(3). Regulations made under subsection (5) may introduce specific requirements regarding the timings for reviewing and republishing of LNRSs. Information collected and published under the NERC reporting duty is expected to provide an important resource when reviewing and republishing the LNRS.
	Subsection (4) provides that the Secretary of State can make regulations to introduce further requirements regarding how LNRSs must be prepared and published; both in the first instance and in later versions. Subsection (5) provides a non-exhaustive list of some specific aspects of this process that regulations may provide for. These are:
provision of information by a local authority that is not the responsible authority;
agreement of the LNRS by all local authorities within the LNRS area;
the procedure for reaching agreement and resolving disagreements;
consultation requirements; and
timings for reviewing and re-publishing of the LNRS.
	These regulations provide a mechanism for creating consistency and maintaining standards between LNRSs and for encouraging a broad, collaborative approach to producing LNRSs, involving a wide range of stakeholders from public, private and voluntary sectors. Regulations allow for a greater level of detail than would be appropriate in primary legislation, and can be updated more easily to reflect experience of good practice.
	Subsection (6) sets out that regulations made under subsection (4) will be by statutory instrument subject to the negative resolution process.