Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government why OFWAT calculate gearing levels of water companies by using a debt-to-assets ratio as opposed to a debt-to-equity ratio.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
It is standard practice for regulated sectors to calculate gearing by reference to Regulator Capital Value (RCV). This is because there exists an RCV which represents costs incurred to date which can be recovered from customers in the future. This approach to calculating Regulatory Gearing is used by Ofgem and the Civil Aviation Authority and is recognised by the Rating Agencies.
As the RCV represents the net stock of investment that has been contributed by debt and investors over time, it grows with net levels of investment. This provides the capacity against which companies may raise debt and equity to finance investment programmes.
There is no equivalent to an RCV for companies operating in a competitive market. Gearing measured by reference to RCV is a more useful metric than standard accounting measure of gearing in a utility sector because future revenue streams are more certain than they would be for companies operating in a competitive market.
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, how many full time staff work in the Environment Agency Economic Crime Unit.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Fifteen full-time staff worked for the Environment Agency Economic Crime Unit on 22 April 2024.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce flooding in urban areas.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is investing £5.6 billion between 2021 and 2027 to better protect communities across England from flooding and coastal erosion. This investment includes a record £5.2 billion capital investment programme, a £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme, £170 million for economic recovery from flooding and over £30 million of funding for flood incident management.
This investment will benefit both urban and rural communities. We forecast that around 55% of the £5.2bn investment, and around 60% of schemes, will better protect properties in urban areas. This includes investment in major flood projects benefitting urban areas, such as the Thames Estuary Programme, the Southsea Coastal Scheme, and others.
Flood risk is also an important consideration in the planning system and there are strong safeguards in place. In 2022/23, 96% of all planning decisions complied with Environment Agency advice on flood risk.
On 13 March 2024 the Government published its response to the National Infrastructure Commission’s study into ‘reducing the risk of surface water flooding’. Our response sets out actions to strengthen and further develop the implementation of current policy, supporting lead local flood authorities to access better data, information and to improve co-operation between bodies.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 work with metro mayors to create a plan for flooding across Yorkshire.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Lead Local Flood Authorities have a duty to develop, maintain, apply and monitor a strategy for local flood risk management in its area, and the Government is supportive of them working together to deliver shared mitigations for a wider area.
The Government has committed to reform the current approach to local flood risk planning by 2026, ensuring every area of England will have a more strategic and comprehensive plan that drives long-term local action and investment and supports a catchment-based approach. To strengthen collaboration, we will encourage flood and coastal erosion risk management activities across local authority boundaries and explore options to join up flood resilience with other responsibilities held by Mayors or Combined Authorities.
As part of the Government’s six-year £200 million flood and coastal innovation programme (FCIP), £8 million is allocated to four adaptation pathways to support work in the Thames and Humber estuaries, the Severn Valley and Yorkshire to trial and develop ways of planning ahead and making wise investment choices for the decades to come in the face of the long-term uncertainties brought by climate change. The West Yorkshire Adaption Pathway (WYAP) project is developing a community-scale surface water flood risk adaptation plan for a town in West Yorkshire. The South Yorkshire Adaption Pathway (SYAP) project aims to develop an adaptation pathway plan for South Yorkshire which will ensure that all decision-making on, and implementation of, long-term, future adaptation is as efficient and effective as possible.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on reducing barriers to bringing used agricultural machinery from Great Britain to Northern Ireland for resale.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As part of the Windsor Framework we announced the new Northern Ireland Plant Health Label Scheme, which has streamlined the process for moving used agricultural and forestry machinery from GB to NI. We have been engaging with industry on the operation of the scheme, and will be taking forward further work in the light of a consultation which concluded earlier this month.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of hedgerow protections.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There has been no formal assessment made of the effectiveness of hedgerow protections. The majority of hedgerows on agricultural land were previously managed in accordance with rules contained in cross compliance that were conditioned to payments made through the Basic Payment Scheme and some agri-environment schemes. As we moved away from the Basic Payment Scheme at the end of last year, cross compliance and the hedgerow management rules also ended. The Government consulted last year on the best approach following the end of cross compliance and on the 16 April laid new regulations that, if approved, will put management practices for hedgerows on agricultural land into law.
Certain hedgerows are also protected from removal under the Hedgerows Regulations 1997 if they meet specific criteria. These regulations are enforced by Local Planning Authorities, who can utilise their understanding of the local context and landscape character.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to commence schedule 3 of the Floods and Water Act 2010.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government remains firmly committed to delivering standardised sustainable drainage systems in new developments as stated in our Plan for Water (April 2023). A consultation will take place shortly and final implementation decisions will be made on scope, threshold and process.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) gypsophila, (b) solidago, (c) orchids, (d) dianthus and (e) chrysanthemum consignments were imported from the EU between 2010 and 2020.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
During the period described this data was not collected as the goods detailed were not under restriction from the EU.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
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 reduce air pollution.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Our Environmental Improvement Plan sets out how we will continue to drive down emissions from domestic burning, agriculture, transport, and industry – delivering cleaner air for all.
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: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding is available to local authorities for clean air programmes.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have allocated over £883 million to help local authorities develop and implement local NO2 reduction plans and to support those impacted by these plans. In addition, the Local Air Quality Grant scheme has supported over 500 projects with a total of over £53 million since 2010. We are currently considering whether the Local Air Quality Grant scheme might be redesigned to better deliver positive outcomes for local air quality.