Joint Committee

The Joint Committee leads JNCC and has overall responsibility for its work. The Accountability Framework Document, Management Statement and Financial Memorandum provide the legal, administrative and financial framework within which the Joint Committee operates.

The membership of the Committee is defined in schedule 4 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities (NERC) Act 2006. Current members are as below.

The Committee meets four times a year, in March, June, September and November. Members discuss strategic nature conservation and organisational issues as well as making high-level advice, strategy, funding and planning decisions.

The Committee is committed to the principle of open government and has been holding open meetings since 2001. Members of the public are welcome to attend meetings as observers except when confidential issues are being discussed. Agendas and Committee papers are made available one week ahead of meetings and draft minutes six weeks later. Inter-sessional papers, provided between Committee meetings, are also available. Meetings are run in accordance with a set of Standing Orders.

Two meetings a year are held at Monkstone House, Peterborough. Two meetings are held in other UK locations on a rotational basis.

If you would like to attend, please phone on 01733 562626 or

Members of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee as at April 2017
Professor Chris Gilligan CBE	Independent Chair (University of Cambridge)
Dr Hilary Kirkpatrick	Chair, Council for Nature Conservation and the Countryside
Ms Diane McCrea MBE	Chair, Natural Resources Wales
Dr Madeleine Havard	Deputy Chair, Natural Resources Wales
Dr Susan Walker OBE	Deputy Chair, Scottish Natural Heritage
Dr Joe Horwood	Natural England
Professor Howard Platt	Deputy Chair, Council for Nature Conservation and the Countryside
Professor Colin Galbraith	Independent
Professor Ian Bateman OBE	Independent (University of Exeter)