Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many seizures of illegal pork imports have been recorded at UK ports and airports in the last 12 months.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra does not record this information. Border Force, supported by port health and local authorities, is responsible for seizing illegal imports of pork at UK ports and airports.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many consignments of pork meat and associated products originating from Spain have been seized at UK borders since 28 November 2025.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The seizure data for detained consignments associated with a specific disease outbreak is recorded locally by Port Health Authorities. Defra does not record this information centrally.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the risk of African Swine Fever entering the UK.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra’s latest assessment for African Swine Fever (ASF) dated 1 December 2025, considers that the risk of the virus entering the UK remains at medium.
We have strict measures in place to mitigate this risk. These include the listing of countries and regions eligible to export pigs and porcine products to Great Britain commercially, prohibitions on importing pigs, fresh pig meat, porcine semen and untreated porcine meat products from areas with ASF, veterinary health certification, and import checks at the border. Personal imports of pork and pork products are not permitted. It is also illegal to feed catering waste to livestock.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what biosecurity procedures are in place for (a) detained and (b) uncollected meat consignments at UK border control posts to prevent the transmission of African Swine Fever.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All consignments of pork and pork products are checked at bio-secure border control posts to ensure that they have been effectively treated to mitigate the risk of African Swine Fever or they originate from a region declared free of the disease. Border Force with the support of Port Health Authorities carry out checks at the border to identify, seize and destroy illegally smuggled meat.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
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 help ensure that sufficient funding for flood prevention is distributed evenly.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As part of the Plan for Change, this Government is investing at least a record £10.5 billion until 2036 – the largest flood programme in history which is projected to benefit more than 890,000 properties.
The Government recently announced major changes to its flood and coastal erosion funding policy, making it quicker and easier to deliver the right flood defences in the right places by simplifying our funding rules.
To secure maximum value for every pound of taxpayer funding, projects will be prioritised by their benefit-to-cost ratios. Contributions from other sources will boost a project’s prioritisation. This approach uses government funding to unlock investment from public, private and charitable sources.
A minimum of 20% of FCERM investment will go to the 20% most deprived communities and a minimum of 40% to the 40% most deprived communities, ensuring deprived communities receive vital investment.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on the reservoir from which the proposed new town at Tempsford plans to draw its water supply.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Anglian Water has a statutory obligation to provide water supplies and will plan provision of this supply for the proposed Tempsford New Town, through the Water Resources Management Plan process.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how plans to introduce nine new river walks and three new national forests will contribute towards ensuring that everyone in England has access to green or blue spaces within fifteen minutes' walk from their home, as committed to in the Environmental Improvement Plan 2025, published on 1 December.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is pleased to commit to progress in ensuring everyone should live within a 15-minute walk of a green or blue space. We have recently published for the first time green and blue space interim statistics and will continue to mature the metric and map the status.
As part of our work to improve public access to nature, we are also progressing plans to deliver nine new National River Walks across England, one in each region, to enhance access to nature. We will announce further details on this in due course.
Our new national forests will support delivery of environmental improvement goals including improving access to green space and better connecting people with nature. The ‘Western Forest’ will see 20 million trees planted across the West of England over the coming years and serve over 2.5 million residents, bringing trees and woodlands closer to where people live.
The second new national forest will be in the Oxford-Cambridge corridor, and a competition will be launched for a third new national forest in the Midlands or North of England in early 2026.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether their plans to introduce nine new river walks and three new national forests will include the creation of new permanent legal rights of access.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our nine new river walks and three new national forests will both increase available natural space and make it more accessible.
We are progressing plans to deliver nine new National River Walks across England, one in each region, to enhance access to nature and are currently considering several delivery options. Further details will be announced in due course.
Our three new national forests in the West of England, the Oxford-Cambridge corridor and the Midlands or North of England, once confirmed, will support delivery of environmental improvement goals including improving access to green space and better connecting people with nature. The Government will set out plans for new national forests in the coming months which will incorporate many factors, including a consideration of new permanent legal rights of access.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of section 147ZA of the Highways Act 1980 on the rights of disabled people to access the outdoors with ease and confidence.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is supportive of the provision within section 147ZA of the 1980 Act that enables an authority to work with landowners and relevant parties to replace or improve existing structures so that they can be used more easily by individuals that may experience mobility challenges. There is currently no national assessment available of the impacts of this provision. However, we will continue to improve access to green and blue spaces, ensuring that it is safe and appropriate for all users, through our various initiatives.
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 recent assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of measures to reduce agricultural ammonia emissions.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The latest UK projections of air pollutants were published in the informative inventory report 2025 in March this year.