Defra's Soil Strategy for England, "Safeguarding our Soils" was launched on the 24th September 2009.

The new strategy does not contain any major new rules or legislation but merely sets out what Defra consider the main challenges for soils and sets out government's key priorities for future soils policy.
The briefing on the right hand side of the page contains more information and summarises the main details of the strategy.
The strategy itself can be downloaded from the
Defra website.