Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the total reservoir storage capacity in England (a) is in 2025 and (b) was in (i) 2020 and (ii) 2015.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The total capacity of reservoirs for all purposes in England, as per the public register of large raised reservoirs of over 25,000m3, which is managed by the Environment Agency.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will consider the potential merits of developing a stand alone waste crime strategy.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to transitioning towards a circular economy where resources are kept in use for longer and waste is designed out. The Government convened a Circular Economy Taskforce of experts to help map that transition; in the new year we will publish a Circular Economy Growth Plan that sets out how government will deliver a more circular and more prosperous economy.
Waste crime threatens this by undermining waste businesses and by taking resources away from that circular economy. The priority is to focus on tangible action to address waste crime, including working with the Environment Agency to drive improvements, swift delivery of our planned reforms and our transition to a circular economy.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate the Department has made of the total cost of river restoration projects undertaken in the last financial year.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Water Restoration Fund was launched in April 2024. It is reinvesting funding based on water company environmental fines and penalties into projects to improve the water environment.
Natural England supports and advises the Rural Payments Agency and the Environment Agency on administration of funds for river restoration, ensuring we get the greatest value for money in terms of nature recovery and wider societal benefits.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues about tackling illegal waste sites in a) Staffordshire and b) England.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State meets regularly with Cabinet colleagues and discusses a wide range of issues including tackling illegal waste sites and other kinds of waste crime. I hold similar discussions on a regular basis with the Environment Agency.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate the Department has made of the volume of plastic packaging placed on the UK market in the last year.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
For 2024, there are two available estimates for the volume of plastic packing placed on the market for the UK. These estimates are based on different methodologies and data sources (PackFlow and Reported Packaging Data) and so produce slightly different figures.
PackFlow is a report commissioned by Defra to provide information on the total flows of packaging in the UK and has historically been used to estimate the total amount of material placed on the market.
The Reported Packaging Data provides new data on total packaging supplied and placed on the UK market and became available after the Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) came into force on 1 January 2025.
Table1: Estimates of the volume of plastic packaging placed on the market, UK
Data source | Packaging waste arising estimate for 2024 (thousand tonnes) |
PackFlow | 2,265 |
Reported Packaging Data | 2,149 (provisional) |
Note: The arisings data sourced from the Reported Packaging Data system is based on data for H1 and H2 for 2024 (as submitted in October 2024 and April 2025). Data as of 2 June 2025
The full methodology and figures relating to previous years, can be found in the UK Statistics on Waste publication.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Department is taking to improve enforcement against illegal waste dumping.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We will reform the waste carriers, brokers and dealers regime and the waste permit exemptions regime. This will make it harder for rogue operators to find work in the sector and easier for regulators to take action against criminals. In addition, our planned digital waste tracking reforms will make it harder than ever to mis-identify waste or dispose of it inappropriately.
The Environment Agency’s (EA) total budget for 2025 to 2026 has increased and includes £15.6m for waste crime enforcement. This is a more than 50% increase from 2024/25. Overall, the EA has been able to increase its frontline criminal enforcement resource in the Joint Unit for Waste Crime and area environmental crime teams by 43 full-time staff. This resource will target activities that are waste crime priorities and will make best use of enforcement activity data and criminal intelligence to do so. Activities include tackling organised crime groups, increasing enforcement activity around specific areas of concern such as landfill sites, closing down illegal waste sites more quickly, using intelligence more effectively, and delivering successful major criminal investigations.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to accelerate tree planting to meet statutory environmental targets.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is investing £1 billion in tree planting and support to the forestry sector over this parliament. Tree planting in England is at the highest recorded rate in over 20 years, with over 7,100 hectares planted in 2024/25. As part of this investment the government is delivering on the manifesto commitment to create three new national forests and will fund tree planting across England, through Woodland Creation Partnerships and Forestry Commission grants, while also providing wider sector support. This support includes investing in apprenticeships and tree nurseries, ensuring we have the skills and jobs we need and a supply of healthy seeds and trees to create the forests of the future.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of biodiversity loss over the last 12 months.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra does not have data on biodiversity loss covering the most recent 12‑month period. However, a range of official publications and monitoring frameworks provide the latest picture of biodiversity trends and the government’s most recent assessment of progress, such as Indicators of species abundance in England, England biodiversity indicators, and Wild bird and Butterfly statistics.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Further to the DEFRA 2024-25 annual report and accounts, HC 1388, 12 November 2025, p.140, what was the title of the staff member who received the exit package of £300,000 to £350,000; what was the public body; on what date it was approved by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury; and what was the business case for the level of the exit payment.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The exit package relates to Flood Re.
Flood Re is a company limited by guarantee. It does not receive any grant funding from the Government. As such, no Government funding has been spent on exit packages at Flood Re.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to reduce water bills for (a) households and (b) businesses in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Bill payers are understandably concerned that bills have risen. For too long, investment has not kept pace with the challenges of an ageing infrastructure system, a rapidly growing population, and climate change. Over the next four years, water companies will deliver substantial and enduring improvements for customers and the environment through a £104 billion upgrade for the water sector. This investment will accelerate improvements in infrastructure to meet these challenges, secure our water supply, and to meet new environmental requirements.
We are working to ensure that both business and household consumers can reduce their bills through decreasing their usage, including by pursuing a Mandatory Water Efficiency Label, smart meter rollout acceleration and a review of water efficiency standards in the Building Regulations.
All companies have measures in place for customers struggling to pay for water and wastewater services, and the Government expects industry to keep support schemes under review to ensure customers across the country are supported.
It is important that support is targeted at the most vulnerable. We have therefore acted decisively by consulting on reforms to WaterSure, which caps bills for low-income households in England with higher essential water use due to a medical condition or a large family. The Government also doubled compensation payments paid to consumers for service failures through the Guaranteed Standards Scheme.