Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) work with the Mayor of London and (b) otherwise help improve air quality in London.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Mayor of London is responsible for air quality in London and has devolved powers under the Environment Act 1995 allowing him to require London boroughs to take action to address local air pollution. The Mayor has received over £6.6bn of funding for transport in London since 2020, and London authorities have received further funding for specific air quality projects totalling almost £102m.
Nationally, we are driving down emissions and concentrations of the most harmful air pollutants and reducing their impact on public health and the environment. This Government has delivered significant reductions in emissions since 2010 – with emissions of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) falling by 24%, and nitrogen oxides down by 48%. We met our targets to reduce emissions for all five key pollutants in the latest reporting year.
PM2.5 is the most harmful pollutant to human health, which is why we have set two new targets to drive down PM2.5 concentrations under the Environment Act 2021:
These targets mean that on average, people’s exposure to particulate matter will be cut by over a third by 2040, compared with 2018 levels.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government which public body, or bodies, will be given the responsibility for the delivery of the Local Nature Recovery Strategies once they have been agreed.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Local Natural Recovery Strategies (LNRSs) will identify and map the best locations to create, enhance and restore nature and provide wider environmental benefits across the whole country. The Government has committed to funding LNRS preparation and recognises the need for them to have weight and meaning across a range of government policies to support and incentivise their delivery.
No one body can therefore be solely responsible for the delivery of LNRSs. Recovering nature will require public, private and voluntary sectors to work closely together to deliver the priorities identified in the strategies. All public bodies must have regard to LNRSs as part of their strengthened statutory duty to conserve and enhance biodiversity (attached).
The Government will publish guidance shortly on how planning authorities will have to have regard to and in time take account of LNRSs in their plans. LNRSs will help to target biodiversity net gain actions and as the strategies become available, the Government will continue to explore join-up between elements of Environmental Land Management schemes and LNRS, as committed to in the January 2024 Agricultural Transition Plan (attached).
We are in discussions with LNRS responsible authorities about their role in helping to coordinate activities in their areas.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to review how the Marine Management Organisation engages and consults with local communities affected by near shore marine developments requiring the Marine Management Organisation’s consent.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The MMO regularly reviews its internal processes to ensure that they remain fit for purpose to allow local communities the chance to feedback on local developments that may affect them.
The MMO Chair is accountable to the Secretary of State and the MMO board holds the MMO’s Chief Executive to account on delivering, including how MMO engages and consults with local communities affected by near shore marine developments.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to (a) improve recycling infrastructure and (b) reduce plastic waste exports.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In the Resources and Waste Strategy, we have committed to taking actions which will help to stimulate private investment in reprocessing and recycling infrastructure.
We are introducing Collection and Packaging Reforms made up of Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging, Simpler Recycling and a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers. Through these reforms we want to significantly increase domestic reprocessing and recycling capacity by both increasing investors’ confidence and improving the competitiveness of UK reprocessing.
Our existing Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations have led to investment in waste infrastructure to process end of life electrical and electronic equipment.
We encourage the development of infrastructure for plastic reprocessing to ensure the UK meets its recycling targets as well as supporting these collection and packaging reforms.
Additionally, HM Treasury’s plastic packaging tax is expected to increase demand for secondary material plastic and increasing reprocessing infrastructure will help meet this demand. Reprocessing infrastructure enables the value of resource use to be maximised as well as waste arisings and its impact on the environment to be minimised.
These actions are all intended to increase the amount of plastic waste we recycle domestically so we can reduce our dependency on plastic waste exports.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help support the transition to (a) humane and (b) sustainable livestock farming.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are committed to investing in targeted schemes that support sustainable farming whilst improving the viability of farming businesses, delivering environmental outcomes and supporting sustainable food production.
Through the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway we are providing support directly to farmers in England to deliver gradual, continual improvement against a series of livestock health and welfare priorities, including tackling key endemic diseases alongside a range of welfare issues whilst ensuring that farmers can produce good quality food for the nation.
The Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill is now awaiting Royal Assent; this will ban the export of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses for slaughter and fattening from Great Britain, stopping unnecessary stress, exhaustion and injury.
Asked by: George Galloway (Workers Party of Britain - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish a circular economy strategy for plastics which sets (a) targets and (b) measures for the (i) elimination and (ii) recycling of single-use plastics.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Resources and Waste Strategy sets out how we want to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by 2042 and move towards a circular economy. In 2023 we published the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) which set out our progress in this area and future plans.
Where the evidence supports the case, we will not hesitate to introduce bans and other measures to limit its use. We have brought in multiple bans and restrictions, including most recently in October 2023, on the supply of many unnecessary single-use plastic items. To tackle the use of virgin plastic and incentivise the use of recycled plastic, the Government brought in the Plastic Packaging Tax in April 2022.
Meanwhile, our Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging reforms will incentivise businesses to use packaging that is more easily recyclable and where possible, eliminate single-use plastic.
We do not currently intend to publish any further strategies as we continue to work on our plans laid out in the EIP.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to issue mandatory guidance to local authorities to ensure that all public washrooms include at least one male incontinence bin.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government encourages local authorities to consider such provision in public toilets to support those with this need but does not have powers to compel the provision of sanitary bins in public toilets. I would encourage the hon. Member to raise the issue locally.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he is taking steps to raise public awareness (a) on the need for male continence bins and (b) to reduce the stigma associated with those who use them.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I fully recognise the importance of ensuring that all men have access to the facilities they need so that they can dispose of their sanitary waste in a safe and dignified way.
Officials from relevant departments have met with representatives of the Dispose with Dignity campaign to discuss the provision of sanitary bins in public and workplace toilets and we are doing all we can to enable this to happen.
The campaign has been successful in emphasising the critical issue of ensuring that all men have access to the facilities they need, so that all men can dispose of their sanitary waste in a safe and dignified way.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of extending right to repair rules to include all electrical products.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has updated the Ecodesign and Energy Labelling Regulations for a range of products, including household fridges, washing machines and televisions, to support the reparability of these products in order to increase their lifespan. They include requirements that spare parts are available for a specified minimum number of years after the placing of new products on the market, provision of information to assist with repairs and that parts can be replaced with the use of commonly available tools.
We will continue to work with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on future implementation of minimum Ecodesign requirements in Great Britain as set out in the energy-related products policy framework, published in November 2021. This will include considering whether to broaden the eco-design requirements to a wider range of electrical products.
Our plan is to continue to increase our resource efficiency and take forward that the right to repair is reflected in the Government’s Energy-related Products Policy Framework.
Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 23 April 2024 to Question 20947 on Members: Correspondence, when he plans to respond to that correspondence.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A response will be issued very shortly. I apologise again for the delay in responding to the hon. Member.